Patent ID: 7228068

Claim:
A lens barrel structure comprising: a base; a lens barrel provided on the base; a lens moving mechanism provided in the lens barrel, the lens moving mechanism supporting a lens movably in an optical axis direction thereof and being supplied with a rotational drive force thereby to move the lens in the optical axis direction; a lens drive mechanism provided to the base, the lens drive mechanism supplying the lens moving mechanism with the rotational drive force, and including a motor including an output shaft, a drive gear provided to the output shaft, and a gear train that meshes with the drive gear to supply motive power of the motor to the lens moving mechanism; and a detecting mechanism that detects a rotation speed of the motor, wherein the detecting mechanism includes a sensing plate that is mounted to the output shaft of the motor and that rotates integrally with the output shaft, and a detector that detects rotation of the sensing plate; and of gears included in the gear train, a first gear to mesh with the drive gear is supported in a cantilever support manner on the side of the base, wherein, as viewed from a top of the output shaft of the motor, a profile of the sensing plate overlaps with an axial center of the first gear, the sensing plate being disposed in the portion of the housing positioned on the opposite side of the drive gear.