Patent GB-637859-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to photographic cameras
IPC: G03B19/12
Filed: 1946-12-20
Abstract: 637,859. Photographic reflex cameras. KODAK, Ltd. Dec. 20, 1946, No. 37580. Convention date, April 4. [Class 98 (i)] A reflex camera having a shutter on the same side of the movable mirror as the lens has a camera body constituted by a body member including two spaced spool chambers and formed with a forwardly extending substantially rectangular, open-fronted section, an inner body section carrying the mirror shutter and fitted into the forwardly extending outer section with side walls of the two sections in spaced parallel relation to provide chambers for accommodating mirrors and shutter operating mechanisms carried by a side wall or walls of the inner section, means for holding the two sections in assembled relation, a front plate carried by the outer section and spaced from the inner section to provide a front mechanism chamber, and a shutter releasing member extending through the outer section. As shown, Fig. 3, the camera consists of inner and outer rectangular portions 2, 20 fixed to a body portion 3 having a hinged back 9 and spool chambers 4, 5. The mirror 43 is fast with a shaft 42 journalled in the walls 40, 41 of the inner member 20. A shutter and lens unit 64 is mounted on the front wall 21 of the inner member, and the mechanism actuating the shutter and mirror is carried between the inner and outer members 20, 2. A latch preventing the operation of the mirror after an exposure until the film has been wound, as described in Specification 637,858, may be included. The mirror is lowered by a stud 54 on a lever 56 pivoted at 58, Fig. 4, which simultaneously sets the shutter, opens the diaphragm to its greatest extent, and thereafter opens the shutter blades, so that the camera may be focussed. A forked arm 59 pivoted to the lever 56 engages the shutter setting knob 62. The lever 56 also has a toothed segment 57 driving through gears 70, 71 a toothed ring 72 having an arm 73, which, when the ring is operated bears against an arm 66 to open the diaphragm, which is retained open by a latch 74. An extension of the lever 56 has an aperture 97 engaging a projection 98 on a lever system (not shown) on the side wall 41 of the inner body member to lower the mirror and latch it. The same lever system causes an arcuate sector 86 to move round the shutter 64 to operate a lever 67 to open the shutter blades at the end of the setting movement. The shutter release levers are also set. When the release button 121 is depressed, the mirror is released and swings up, the arm 66 is released . and moves under the influence of a spring 90 until stopped by a preadjusted. projection (not shown) of the diaphragm control, and the arcuate sector 86 moves to close the shutter blades. The release button also engages a lug 124 actuating the shutter release. The shutter opens only when the release has moved some distance so that the above-mentioned movements consequent on pressing the release button have taken place before the shutter opens. An additional safeguard prevents the shutter from opening before the mirror finishes its upward movement when the release is depressed too rapidly. The release button normally remains depressed until the camera is reset. For " time " exposures, the release button is permitted to return sufficiently to actuate the shutter when depressed again, but not to its original position. Specification 210,531, [Class 98 (i)], also is referred to.