Patent ID: 8451544

Claim:
A lens barrel comprising: a rear movable member, which holds a rear optical element of an imaging optical system, said rear movable member being movable along the optical axis of said imaging optical system between a photographing position and a retracted accommodating position that is positioned behind said photographing position; an off-axis removable member, which holds a removable optical element of said imaging optical system, said off-axis removable member being movable between an on-axis position at which said removable optical element is positioned on said optical axis and an off-axis position at which said removable optical element is positioned radially away from said optical axis; a front movable member, which supports said off-axis removable member, said front movable member being movable along said optical axis between a photographing position and a retracted accommodating position that is positioned behind said photographing position; and a removal driving member, which is supported by said front movable member, wherein said removal driving member makes said off-axis removable member position at said on-axis position when said front movable member is at said photographing position, and said removal driving member moves said off-axis removable member from said on-axis position to said off-axis position when said front movable member moves from said photographing position to said retracted accommodating position; wherein, when said front movable member and said rear movable member are respectively positioned at said photographing positions, said removable optical element is positioned in front of said rear optical element, and when said front movable member and said rear movable member are respectively positioned at said retracted accommodating positions, said removable optical element at least partially overlaps said rear optical element in the optical axis direction; wherein said removal driving member is provided at the rear of said front movable member; and wherein when said front movable member moves rearward in the optical axis direction relative to said rear movable member, said removal driving member comes in contact with said rear movable member to be slidable in a driven direction of said off-axis removable member within a movable range of said off-axis removable member between said on-axis position and said off-axis position, while said off-axis removable member does not come in contact with said rear movable member.