Patent ID: 8339504

Claim:
An optical element drive mechanism of an image pickup apparatus having a lens disposed on a first optical axis along which light beams from an object are incident, and an optical element for bending the light beams propagating along the first optical axis to a direction of a second optical axis, the optical element being movable between a storage state and a photographing state, the optical element drive mechanism comprising: a drive mechanism configured to rotatably drive a rotary cylinder mounted with the lens, said drive mechanism being operable in conjunction with a drive source; a driving force transmission gear train having an input-side gear disposed for engagement with a gear portion formed on the rotary cylinder, said driving force transmission gear train being configured to have the input-side gear in engagement with the gear portion so as to output a rotational driving force of the rotary cylinder in a case where the rotary cylinder is in the photographing state and configured to release the engagement between the input-side gear and the gear portion so as not to output the rotational driving force in a case where the rotary cylinder is in the storage state; and an optical element moving operation mechanism configured to move the optical element between the storage state and the photographing state in conjunction with the rotational driving force output from said driving force transmission gear train.