Patent ID: 7499230

Claim:
A lens barrel comprising: a lens barrel body for fixably and/or movably supporting a plurality of lens barrel lenses, the plurality of lens barrel lenses extending radially from and being aligned along a lens barrel optical axis within the lens barrel body; lens holding member for holding at least one holding member lens, the at least one holding member lens extending radially from and being aligned along a holding member lens optical axis; and an alignment device for interconnecting the lens barrel body and the lens holding member and for aligning the lens holding member supported on the lens barrel body, wherein the alignment device includes at least three supporting portions to support the lens holding member on the lens barrel body, the at least three supporting portions disposed radially apart from the lens barrel optical axis and angularly apart from one another, at least one of the three supporting portions includes a spherical convex portion provided on one of the lens holding members and the lens barrel body and a spherical concave portion provided on the other of the lens holding members and the lens barrel body that is engaged with the spherical convex portion, and at least one of the remaining supporting portions of the three except the one supporting portion can adjust a distance between the lens holding and the lens barrel body such that the lens holding member can be tilted relative to the lens barrel so that the holding member optical axis can be adjusted to align coexistently with the lens barrel optical axis.