Patent ID: 8194176

Claim:
A switching mechanism for optical component comprising: an optical component; a holder member holding the optical component; a drive mechanism having a drive motor that drives the optical component held by the holder member to rotate on a plane orthogonal to an optical axis from an optical axis position at which the optical component is on the optical axis to an evacuation position at which the optical component is off the optical axis; and a restriction member restricting a rotation of the holder member, by which at least a rotation of the optical component held by the holder member is restricted at the optical axis position, wherein the drive mechanism includes the drive motor, a worm attached to a rotation shaft of the drive motor, and a worm wheel meshed with the worm and provided to the holder member, and a rotation feed direction in which the optical component is driven toward the restriction member at the optical axis position with a rotation of the worm is a direction in which the optical component comes close to the drive motor.