Patent ID: 7855746

Claim:
A lens barrel, comprising: a plurality of lens groups; a plurality of lens retaining frames configured to retain the plurality of lens groups, respectively; a telescopic cylinder retained by a fixed base member and configured to retain a portion of the plurality of lens retaining frames inside of the telescopic cylinder; a lens retaining frames driving device configured to drive the plurality of lens retaining frames; and a fixed cylinder configured to store the telescopic cylinder in a collapsed state, wherein at least one of the plurality of lens groups is moved from a collapsed position, at which the at least one of the plurality of lens groups is collapsed, toward a subject side to establish a photographing state, wherein the lens retaining frames driving device is configured to drive at least one of lenses of the at least one of the plurality of lens groups to move from the photographing state in which optical axes of all of the lenses are aligned along a direction of the optical axis to an imaging side, and to drive a lens-retracting frame which is one of the plurality of lens retaining frames and is configured to retain a retractable lens to be retracted to an outside of the telescopic cylinder through a through-hole provided at the fixed cylinder to a retracted position, and wherein a portion of the lens retaining frames driving device for driving the lens-retracting frame is formed to project backwardly in the direction of the optical axis from a rear end surface of the fixed base member for retaining the telescopic cylinder.