Patent ID: 8218249

Claim:
A lens barrel comprising: a holding frame; a cam ring rotatable relative to the holding frame around a rotational axis substantially parallel to an optical axis of an imaging optical lens system; and a cam follower provided on the holding frame and a cam groove provided on the cam ring that engage with each other so that the holding frame and the cam ring move relative to each other along the optical axis when the holding frame and the cam ring are rotated relative to each other, wherein when a shape of the cam groove is determined based at least in part on a shape of a basic cam groove, a groove surface positioned on an object side or an eyepiece side of a basic track of the basic cam groove is defined as a first basic cam groove surface, and a groove surface positioned on the other side of the basic track is defined as a second basic cam groove surface, the shape of the cam groove produced by: shifting two portions of the second basic cam groove surface relative to each other in a circumferential direction of the cam ring, resulting in a shifted portion and a non-shifted portion; combining the shifted and non-shifted portions to form a produced basic cam groove surface; shifting the produced basic cam groove surface and the first basic cam groove surface relative to each other in a direction parallel to the optical axis; and combining the shifted produced basic cam groove surface and the shifted first basic cam groove surface so that a width of a resultant groove in a direction parallel to the optical axis is reduced.