Patent ID: 7546028

Claim:
An inclination angle adjusting mechanism for changing the angle of an image pickup device, comprising: a mounting plate to which said image pickup device is mounted; a reference member which holds said mounting plate; a plurality of through-holes formed in said mounting plate at positions dispersively around said image pickup device; a plurality of screw bearing seats which project from a reference surface of said reference member to correspond to said through-holes, respectively, and which have outer diameters allowing said screw bearing seats to be inserted into said through-holes, respectively; a plurality of adjustment screws, each of which includes a screw shaft portion and a head portion, said screw shaft portions of said adjustment screws being screwed into female screw holes formed in said screw bearing seats, respectively, and said head portions of said adjustment screws being in contact with said image pickup device mounting plate; and a biasing device which biases said mounting plate in a direction away from said reference member to bring said mounting plate into contact with back surfaces of said head portions of said adjustment screws, wherein maximum tightening positions of said adjustment screws relative to said female screw holes of said screw bearing seats are defined by engagement of back surfaces of said head portions of said adjustment screws with ends of said screw bearing seats, respectively, wherein said mounting plate remains not in contact with said reference surface.