CA2230360A1 - General-purpose photo filter unit - Google Patents
General-purpose photo filter unit Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- CA2230360A1 CA2230360A1 CA002230360A CA2230360A CA2230360A1 CA 2230360 A1 CA2230360 A1 CA 2230360A1 CA 002230360 A CA002230360 A CA 002230360A CA 2230360 A CA2230360 A CA 2230360A CA 2230360 A1 CA2230360 A1 CA 2230360A1
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- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- body member
- filter unit
- photo filter
- filtering section
- colors
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Abandoned
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- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03B—APPARATUS OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS OR FOR PROJECTING OR VIEWING THEM; APPARATUS OR ARRANGEMENTS EMPLOYING ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ACCESSORIES THEREFOR
- G03B11/00—Filters or other obturators specially adapted for photographic purposes
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B5/00—Optical elements other than lenses
- G02B5/20—Filters
- G02B5/22—Absorbing filters
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- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Optics & Photonics (AREA)
- Blocking Light For Cameras (AREA)
- Structure And Mechanism Of Cameras (AREA)
Abstract
A general-purpose photo filter unit for a camera comprises a transparent body member and a filter member provided on the body member as a component part discrete from the body member and including a filtering section protruding forwardly from the body member. The filtering section has one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or has one of particular shapes such as a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleidoscope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices, or has a combination of one of the colors and one of the shapes. The general-purpose photo filter unit also includes one or more attaching members provided on the body member, and the attaching members are engageable with the body of the camera so as to removably attach the photo filter unit to the body on a predetermined position thereof such that the filtering section is placed in alignment with the front surface of the camera lens. With these attaching members, the general-purpose photo filter unit is removably attachable to various types of cameras with utmost ease, and the photo filter unit thus attached allows any user to take a picture with a desired special effect.
Description
~,RNRRAT.-PURPOSE PHOTO FILTER UNIT
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention:
5The present lnvention relates to a general-purpose photo filter unit for use with cameras.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention:
5The present lnvention relates to a general-purpose photo filter unit for use with cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art:
Examples of the known removable filters, for use with single-lens reflex cameras and 35mm cameras, include color filters having various colors such as red, blue, yellow and green, and filters having particularly-shaped surfaces such as a coarse surface, fish-eye surface and the like. By attaching such a filter on a single-lens reflex camera or 35mm camera, it is possible to take a picture of an object with a desired special effect; for example, the picture taken can have a desired coloring effect, or can be inten-tionally blurred or 180 panoramic.
In recent years, digital cameras have been gaining popularity at a rapid speed, in which every digitally-taken picture is stored in a memory provided within the camera body. By connecting such a digital camera to, for example, a personal computer, the picture taken can be visually presented on a display screen of the personal computer , and/or printed out on a paper. Thus, unlike the traditional cameras, the digital cameras do not require any film and hence can be used very conveniently. Further, the digital cameras can be used in a variety of ways because they enable users to freely process every digital picture on the display screen of the personal computer. Moreover, because the digital pictures taken can be easily managed on a storage device, such as a hard disc (HD) or magneto-optical disc (MO), provided in a personal computer, the digital cameras enable the pictures to be rearranged or edited more easily and kept in a less space as compared to the traditional cameras which would require printed pictures to be kept on a photograph album and negatives to be kept separately from the printed pictures.
Polaroid (registered trademark of Polaroid Corporation) camera is another typical example of the cameras which require no film to be developed. The Polaroid camera can print out every picture on the spot of photographing, and hence has been used very handily by numerous users.
Further, film packs equipped with a lens (or lens-equipped film packs), which are more commonly known today as single-use or disposable cameras, are also popular handy-type cameras mainly because they are relatively inexpensive.After having used up the film roll, the user takes the entire film pack to a local processing lab or shop, from which the camera body is normally returned to the film maker for recycling of the lens and picture-taking mechanism of the film pack, and only the negative and printed pictures are then given to the user. Thus, the lens-equipped film packs can be very conveniently used as a kind of toy.
However, because there exist substantially no dedicated filters for such digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs --if any, they are very expensive--, a desired coloring, shading or shaping effect achieved by the traditional single-lens reflex cameras or 35mm cameras can not be imparted with these cameras. Also, the digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs have their respective lenses of relatively small aperture in the range of five to six mm which do not fit existing filters for the traditional single-lens reflex or 35mm cameras; in other words, the exiting filters can not be properly used with these digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a photo filter unit which is usable with cameras of various types including digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs as well as traditional single-lens reflex and 35mm cameras and also enables a user to easily take pictures with a desired special effect.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a general-purpose photo filter unit for use with a camera, which comprises a--transparent body member and a ~, , .
filter member provided on the body member. The filter member includes a filtering section being noncolored or having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or having one of particularly-shaped surfaces such as coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or having a combina-tion of one of the colors and one of the particularly-shaped surfaces. The general-purpose photo filter unit also in-cludes one or more attaching members provided on the body member, and the attaching members are engageable with the body of the camera so as to removably attach the photo filter unit to the camera body on a predetermined position thereof such that the filtering section is placed in align-ment with the front surface of the camera lens.
With the attaching members, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention is removably attachable to digital and Polaroid cameras in proper alignment with their lenses in a quite simplified manner. Since the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention can be manufactured at very low cost, it can be used as a kind of toy or disposable photo filter and yet allows a user to take a picture with a desired special effect such as a coloring, soft-focusing or image modifying effect. Particu-larly, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention can be readily attached to lens-equipped film packs for which there has heretofore been no photo filter available, and it allows any user to readily take a picture with a desired special effect, such as a coloring, soft-focusing, image or modifying effect, even with the lens-equipped film pack.
According to another aspect of the present invention,there is provided a general-purpose photo filter unit for use with a camera, which comprises a transparent body member and a filter member provided on the body member as a compo-nent part discrete from the body member and including a filtering section protruding forwardly from the body member.
The filtering section is noncolored or has one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or has one of particular shapes such as a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleidoscope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices, or has a combination of one of the colors and one of the shapes. The general-purpose photo filter unit also includes one or more attaching members similar to the above-mentioned. Because the filter member is discrete from the body member, focusing relative to a film of the camera is substantially facili-tated irrespective of the protruding shape of the filter member. The filter member can be transported or stored separately from the body member without becoming bulky, and it may be attached to the body member only prior to actual use.
In a preferred implementation, the filter member in-cludes a cylindrical frame and the filtering section is fixed to the frame. This arrangement provides for a suffi-cient distance between the camera film and the filtering section and thereby effectlvely avoids a blurred picture.
Preferably, the frame of the filter member is variable in length between 20 and 35 mm for facilitated focusing within this range.
Preferably, the filter member is secured to the body member by means of an adhesive or by being screwed or tightly inserted into a predetermined area of the body member. This arrangement effectively facilitates assemblage and use of the unit.
The filtering section having the shape of the convex polygon or the cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof may be mounted in the frame. By shoot-ing with any one of the concave and convex lenses pointed at an object, the object can look thinner or fatter in a resul-tant picture than in reality.
In one preferred implementation, the film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices is fixed to a surface of the body member having a shape of a triangular prism. This arrangement can place the mosaic pattern film at an appropriate distance and angle relative to the lens of the film pack, so that it is possible to provide a higher refractive index and thus achieve a more effective rainbow-color effect than in the case where the mosaic pattern film is affixed directly to the transparent body member.
Preferably, the attaching members comprise a pair of elastic rubber bands fixed to the body member, adjacent to opposite side edges of the body member, by means of a pair of fastener members through which respective one of the attaching members are threaded, and each of the fasteners has a pair of engaging claws locked in a locking recess formed in the body member for removable attachment to the body member. By just passing the elastic rubber bands around part of the camera body, the photo filter unit can be readily attached to the camera body.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinbelow, by way of example only, with refer-ence to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a front view of a lens-equipped film pack having removably attached thereto a general-purpose photo filter unit in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a front view of the general-purpose photo filter unit shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the photo filter unit taken along the line A - A of Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 is a front view of a general-purpose photo filter unit in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 5 is a perspective view explanatory of a manner in which attaching members of the photo filter unit of Fig. 4 are removably mounted on a body member of the unit;
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of an example of a filter member of the photo filter unit of Fig. 1 or 4 which has an embossed filtering surface;-Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another example of the filter member which has a scratched filtering surface;
Fig. 8 is a perspective view of still another exampleof the filter member which is shaped to have a concave surface:
Fig. 9 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member which has a protruding surface gener-ally in the shape of a truncated pyramid;
Fig. 10 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member which has, on its front side, a pro-truding filtering surface generally in the shape of a trun-cated triangular prism;
Fig. 11 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member having the embossed fil-tering surface of Fig. 6;
Fig. 12 is a diagram schematically showing a picturetaken by use of the filter member having the scratched filtering surface of Fig. 7;
Fig. 13 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member having the protruding filtering surface of Fig. 9;
Fig. 14 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member having the protruding filtering surface of Fig. 10;
Fig. 15 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 16 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present inven-tion;
Fig. 17 is an exploded perspective view of the photo filter unit of Fig. 16;
Fig. 18 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 19 is an exploded perspective view of the photo filter unit of Fig. 18;
Fig. 20 is a perspective view of an example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which is disk-shaped and has a front-side protrusion generally in the shape of a truncated convex polygon;
Fig. 21 is a perspective view of another example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which is disk-shaped and has a front-side protrusion generally in the shape of a gabled convex poly-gon;
Fig. 22 is a sectional side view of still another example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which has concave and convex lens on both sides thereof;
Fig. 23 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit which is capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect;
Fig. 24 is a plan view--of another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect;
Fig. 25 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect, using a kaleidoscopic structure;
Fig. 26 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filtering section of Fig. 20;
Fig. 27 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filtering section of Fig. Zl; and Figs. 28A and 28B are diagrams explanatory of an advan-tageous effect provided by the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit of Fig. 25.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention or its application or uses.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinbelow in relation to a lens-equipped film pack, although the present invention is applicable to cam-eras of various other types.
Fig. 1 is a front view of the lens-equipped film pack or disposable camera 2 having removably attached thereto a general-purpose photo filter unit 1 in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. The general-purpose photo filter unit 1 is mounted right in front of a lens section 3 of the film pack 2 in face-to-face relation thereto, and the lens section 3 includes a relatively small lens having a small aperture in the range of 5 to 6 mm.
Note that the general-purpose photo filter unit 1 of the present invention is also applicable to digital and Polaroid (registered trademark of Polaroid Corporation) cameras fitted with lenses having an aperture of 15mm or less, as well as traditional 35mm cameras.
The lens-equipped film pack 2 comprises a body 4 having an unexposed film previously loaded therein, and a picture-taking mech~n~ ~m, similar to those of traditional 35mm cameras, which includes the lens section 3, view finder 5, shutter 6, flash 7, flash button 8, film take-up knob and counter window: the take-up knob and counter window are not shown in Fig. 1 because they are on the reverse or rear side of the film pack 2. Having used up the pre-loaded film roll, the user takes the entire film pack 2 to a local processing lab or shop so that the body 4 is returned there-from to the film maker for recycling of the lens and picture-taking mechanism, and then only the negative and printed pictures are given to the user.
Fig. 2 is a front view of the general-purpose photo filter unit 1 of Fig. 1. As shown, the photo filter unit 1 comprises a body member 11 formed of transparent synthetic resin into a generally square plate, and a filter member 12 located centrally on the body member 11. The filter member 12 is greater in size than the lens section 3 of the film pack 2 and has a circular or square shape. The filter member 12 may be colorless, or may have one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three , of these colors. Also, the filter member 12 may have one of particularly-shaped surfaces such as coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces. The transpar-ent synthetic resin forming the body member 11 of the photo filter unit 1 may be thermoplastic resin, thermosetting resin or reactive setting resin. More specifically, the transparent synthetic resin may be acrylic resin, polymethyl pentene, polycarbonate, polyacrylate, polystyrene, epoxy resin, AS resin, diallyl phthalate resin, MS resin, ADC
resin, vinyl chloride, multifunctional acryl (thermosetting or W setting) or ABS resin. Alternatively, copolymer or polymer alloy of any of the above-mentioned resins may be used as long as it has desired transparency.
Because the body member 11 made of such synthetic resin can be effectively protected from damage if it is acciden-tally dropped, is very light in weight and yet inexpensive, the user can use the photo filter unit 1 freely without having to worry about its possible damage.
As also shown in Fig. 2, the body member 11 has a pair of elongate locking holes 13 adjacent to opposite side edges thereof, and a pair of attaching members 15, each in the form of an elastic rubber band, are mounted on the body member 11 by means of elongate fastener members 14 removably locked in the respective locking holes 13. By use of the attaching members 15, the body member 11 with the filter member 12 can be removably attached to the body 4 of the lens-equipped film pack 2. The filter member 12 has a small central through-hole 16. When this small central hole 16 is , pointed at a particular ob]ect, such as a person, at the time of shooting, the particular object can be taken in an unfiltered sharp image while the surrounding scenery is taken in a filtered image. The same selective filtering effect may be achieved by forming a small non-filtering region centrally on the filter member 12 in stead of forming the central through-hole 16. Of course, the entire filter member 12 may be formed to have the filtering function.
Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the photo filter unit 1 taken along the line A - A of Fig. 2. Each of the fastener members 14 is formed of flexible resin into a substantially U-shaped or channel-shaped section, and the attaching mem-bers 15 are threaded through the corresponding fastener members 14 adjacent to the opposite side edges of the body member 11. Each of the fastener members 14 has outward engaging claws 17 at the bottom of its opposed leg portions, which are locked in recesses 18 formed in the reverse side of the body member 11 in communication with the correspond-ing locking hole 13.
Each of the fastener members 14 is removably fixed to the body member 11 as follows. Namely, in Fig. 3, the longitudinally-central portion of the fastener member 14, having the attaching member 15 in the form of a rubber band previously threaded therethrough, is first inserted into the locking hole 13 as shown by downward arrows ~ with the engaging claws 17 pressed inwardly (i.e., toward each other) as shown by arrows ~3 until the upper surface of each of the claws 17 is located below the upper end of the corresponding recess 18. Then, the engaging claws 17 are released from the pressing force, upon which the claws 17 spring back outwardly away from each other as shown by arrow ~ to be resiliently locked in the recesses 18 against accidental detachment from the body member 11. By passing the attach-ing members 15 around part of the body 4 of the lens-equipped film pack 2, the body member 11 can be removably attached to the film pack body 4, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is a front view of a general-purpose photo filter unit 21 in accordance with a second preferred embodi-ment of the present invention. Here, elements having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are repre-sented by the same reference numerals and will not be de-scribed in detail to avoid unnecessary duplication. The general-purpose photo filter unit 21 according to the second preferred embodiment is characterized in that a pair of locking holes 22 are formed, in each of opposite side edge portions of the body member 11, in vertically spaced-apart relation to each other. Each of the locking holes 22 opens outwardly through a sectorial guide recess 23 that gradually becomes wider in the outward direction.
Fig. 5 is a view explanatory of a manner in which each of the attaching members 15 is removably mounted on the body member 11 in the second embodiment. The attaching member 15 in the form of a rubber band is first inserted into the upper and lower locking holes 22 through the respective sectorial guide recesses 23 in such a manner that part of the attaching member 15 extends between the locking holes 22. With the thus-mounted attaching members 15, the body member 11 can be removably attached to the body 4 of the lens-equipped film pack 2.
The attaching members 15 may comprise a single rubber band rather than the two separate rubber bands, or alterna-tively each of the attaching members 15 may be a rigid hook-shaped member to be hooked on the film pack body 4 from above or a sucking disc to be adhered to the front surface of the film pack body 4 by suction, although the attaching members 15 will be described as two separate rubber bands for convenience of explanation.
Now, with reference to Figs. 6 to 10, a description will be made about several examples of the filter member 12 each having a particularly-shaped filtering surface.
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of an example of the filter member 12 which has an embossed filtering surface.
That is, a multiplicity of tiny raised and recessed portions 25 are mechanically formed on the filtering surface so that soft focus, that is, a slight blurred photographic effect as obtained by setting a lens slightly out of focus, may be obtained. The through-hole 16 is formed centrally in the filter member 12.
Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another example of the filter member 12 which has a scratched filtering surface to function as a cross screen: that is, a plurality of vertical and horizontal grooves 27 of very small width and depth are formed, using a metal comb or the like, in the filtering surface in a grid-like configuration. In an alternative, additional grooves may also be formed in such a manner that one or more of the additional grooves obliquely cross the vertical and horizontal shallow grooves 27 at each intersec-tion 28 between the grooves 27, although not specifically shown.
Fig. 8 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member 12. In Fig. 8, this filter member 12 has a substantially s~uare shape and is processed to have a concave filtering surface that is curved in the horizontal direction but not in the vertical direction. Although not specifically shown, the filter member 12 may have a convex filtering surface that is curved only in the horizontal direction. Further, the filter member 12 may have the concave filtering surface on one side and the convex filter-ing surface on the other side so that one photo filter unitcan function as concave-filtering and convex-filtering surface filters by just being reversed.
If a person is photographed with the concave filtering surface of the filter member 12 pointed at the person, the person can be imaged slimmer or thinner in the horizontal direction. Conversely, if the person is photographed with the convex filtering surface of the filter member 12 pointed at the person, the person can be imaged fatter in the hori-zontal direction.
Alternatively, the concave filtering surface of the filter member 12 may be one that is curved only in the vertical direction rather than only in the horizontal direc-tion, or curved spherically. In still another alternative, a concave or convex filtering surface portion may be formed on part of the filter member 12; in this case, by photo-graphing an object such as a person with the concave or convex filtering surface portion pointed at a particular part of the subject, the particular part can be imaged in compressed or expanded form as desired by the user.
Fig. 9 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member 12 which has, on its front side, a protruding filtering surface 33 generally in the shape of a truncated pyramid.
Fig. 10 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member 12 which has, on its front side, a protruding filtering surface 35 generally in the shape of a "truncated triangular prism" 35. The protruding filtering surface 35 may be in the shape of any other polyhedron than the pentahedron shown in Figs. 9 and 10, such as a hexahedron.
The following paragraphs describe the operation of the examples of the filter member 12 of Figs. 6 to 10, with reference to Figs. 11 to 14. Fig. 11 is a diagram schemati-cally showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the embossed filtering surface 25 of Fig. 6. Namely, by shooting with the central hole 16 of the filter member 12 pointed at an object (person), the person can be taken in a clear image as represented at 41 while the surrounding scenery can be taken in an image with some blur.
Fig. 12 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the scratched filtering surface 27 of Fig. 7. Namely, by shooting with an intersection between the vertical and horizontal grooves 27 pointed at an object (building), the object can be taken in an image with a bright cross-shaped flare. Thus, the use of this scratched filtering surface or cross screen can impart a visual accent to the image. If the scratched filtering surface has one or more additional grooves obliquely cross-ing the vertical and horizontal shallow grooves 27 at each of the intersections 28, then the image of the object can have an even brighter cross-shaped flare and hence a stron-ger visual accent.
Fig. 13 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the protruding filtering surface 33 of Fig. 9 generally in the shape of a truncated pyramid. Namely t by photographing an object (person) with the protruding filtering surface 33 at the person, the person can be taken in a central image 51 along with four additional, identical images 52 surrounding the central image 51.
Fig. 14 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the protruding filtering surface 35 of Fig. 10 generally in the shape of a truncated triangular prism. Namely, by photographing an objéct (person) with the protruding filtering surface 35 at the person, the person can be taken in a central image 54 along with two additional, identical images 55 to the left and right of the central image 54.
Next, with reference to Figs. 15 to 19, other embodi-ments of the present invention will be described where the filter member and the transparent body member are formed as discrete component parts. Fig. 15 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit 61 in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention, where elements having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are represented by the same reference numerals and will not be described in detail to avoid unnecessary duplication. The photo filter unit 61 in accordance with the third embodiment comprises a body member 62 in the form of a transparent resin plate and a filter member 63 attached to the body member 61. The filter member 63 includes a cylindrical frame 64 and a filtering section 65 secured to the front end of the frame 64.
To facilitate focusing relative to the film of the pack, the frame 64 is constructed to be variable in length between 20 and 35 mm. The variable length of the frame 64 allows the magnification to be accurately changed within a limit of about 10~. Also, the frame 64 has a contour ta-pered in the rearward direction so that its inner diameter is greater at the front end 64a than at the rear end 64b.
In the illustrated example, the filtering section 65 has an aperture of about 15mm. The frame 64 with the filtering member 63 is secured at the rear end 64b to a central open-ing of the body member 62 by means of an adhesive 66. Thefiltering section 65 is colorless, or has one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of these colors.
Fig. 16 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit 71 in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present inven-tion, where elements having the same functions as those in the third embodiment are represented by the same reference numerals and will not be described in detail to avoid unnec-essary duplication. The photo filter unit 71 in accordance with the fourth embodiment comprises a body member 72 in the form of a transparent resin plate and a filter member 73 attached to the body member 72. The filter member 73 in-cludes a cylindrical frame 74 and a filtering section 65secured to the front end of the frame 74. The frame 74 has a contour tapered in the rearward direction so that its inner diameter is greater at the front end 74a than at the rear end 74b. As shown in Fig. 17 in an exploded perspec-tive, the frame 74 with the filtering section 65 is remov-ably attached to the body member 72 through engagement between a male thread formed on a rear end portion of the frame 74 and a female thread formed along a central opening 76 provided in the body member 72.
Fig. 18 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit 82 n accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present inven-tion, where elements having the same functions as those in the third embodiment are represented by the same reference numérals and will not be described in detail to avoid unnec-essary duplication. The photo filter unit 81 in accordance with the fourth embodiment comprises a body member 82 in the form of a transparent resin plate and a filter member 83 attached to the body member 82. The filter member 83 in-cludes a cylindrical frame 84 and a filtering section 65 secured to the front end 84a of the frame 84. The frame 84 has a contour tapered in the rearward direction so that its inner diameter is greater at the front end 84a than at the rear end 84b. As shown in Fig. 19 in an exploded perspec-tive, the frame 84 has an annular flange 85 on its rear end, and the annular flange 85 has two outward projections 86 spaced apart from each other by 180 along the circumference thereof.
As further shown in Fig. 19, the body member 82 has a recessed portion 87 extending from the top down to a central portion thereof, and the width of the recessed portion 87 is identical with the diameter of the rear end 84b of the frame 84. Lower end 87a of the recessed portion 87 is formed into a semicircle having a same diameter as the rear end 84b. In addition, a channel 88 is formed along opposed vertical edges and lower-end semicircular edge of the recessed por-tion 87 in such a manner that diametrically opposite por-tions of the annular flange 85 of the frame 84 are fitted in the channels 88 for vertical sliding movement therealong.
Two cavities 89 are formed in respective lower ends of the vertical straight portions of the channel 88. To mount the filter member 83 on the body member 82, the annular flange 85 of the frame 84 is fitted into the channel 88 from above and slid down into contact with the lower end of the semi-circular edge of the recessed portion 87. After that, the frame 84 is turned in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction to allow the outward projections 86 to be fitted in the corresponding cavities 89. In this way, the filter member 83 with the filtering section 65 is removably at-tached to the body member 82.
The following paragraphs detail examples of the filter-ing section that may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodi-ments, with reference to Figs. 20 and 21. Fig. 20 is a perspective view of an example of the filtering section 65 which is dlsk-shaped and secured to the front end 64a of the frame member 64, 74 or 84 of the filter unit 63, 73 or 83.
Specifically, the filtering section 65 has a front-side protrusion 91 generally in the shape of a "truncated convex polygon" and terminating in a flat central top 92, and each of sectorial slanting surfaces 94 of the truncated convex polygon 91 progressively widens in a direction from the central top 92 to a flat outer edge 93 of the filtering section 65. The filtering section 65 is secured to the front end 64a of the frame member 64, 74 or 84 by being fitted in a groove formed in the inner peripheral surface of the front end 64a.
Fig. 21 is a perspective view of another example of the filtering section which is also disk-shaped and having a front-side protrusion 102 generally in the shape of a "ga-bled convex polygon". In this filtering section 101, the protrusion 102 has a plurality of slanting surfaces 103 extending in the same direction and arranged in symmetry about the apex of the gable; thus, the two slanting surfaces 103 nearest to a flat outer edge 104 have a smallest degree of protrusion. This filtéring section 101 is also secured to the front end 64a of the frame member 64, 74 or 84 by being fitted in a groove formed in the inner peripheral surface of the front end 64a.
Fig. 22 is a sectional side view of still another example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which is characterized by having concave and convex lens on both sides thereof. More specifically, this filtering section 111 has a concave lens 113 secured to a greater-diameter end (upper end in the figure) 112a of a cylindrical frame 112 and a convex Iens 114 secured to a smaller-diameter end (lower end in the figure) 112b of the frame 112. The filtering section 111 can be attached, at either the greater-diameter end 112a or the smaller-diameter end 112b, to the body member 62 or 72 by means of the adhesive 66 or by being screwed or tightly inserted therein as noted earlier in relation to Figs. 15 to 19 .
Further, according to the present invention, the fil-tering surface or section of the filter member 12 may com-prise a transparent sheet that has a function of dispersing light to form an iridescent striped pattern thereon, other than those shown in Figs. 6 to 10. The filter member 12 with such a transparent sheet can impart a rainbow-color effect to an image, utilizing strong light reflected from a particular object such as a window pane on a building.
The following paragraphs describe such a general-pur-pose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect, with reference to Figs. 23 and 24. Fig. 23 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect. This photo filter unit 121 comprises a transparent body member 122 in the shape of a triangular prism, and a film 123 fixed to one surface of the body member 122 and having mosaic patterns. The transparent body member 122, which may be formed of acrylic resin, has a pair of attach-ing members 125, each in the form of an elastic rubber band,mounted adjacent to opposite side edges thereof by means of elongate fastener members 124, as in the first embodiment of Fig. 1. In the illustrated example, the film 123 is parti-tioned into a total of twenty square segments 126 --four segments in the vertical direction and five segments in the horizontal direction--, and each of the segments has a mosaic pattern of refractive index different from those of the other segments' mosaic patterns.
Fig. 24 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect. This general-purpose photo filter unit 131 comprises a body member 133 in the form of a trans-parent resin sheep, a transparent mount 132 formed of acrylic resin into an inverted trapezoidal shape and secured to the body member 133 by means of an adhesive or the like, and the above-mentioned film 123 affixed to the front side of the mount 132.
If the above-mentioned-film 123 is affixed directly to the transparent plate-shaped body member 122, it would only produce an insufficient and instable rainbow-color effect due to its low refractive index, or would sometimes produce no rainbow-color effect at all depending on angles and positions of the mosaic patterns relative to an object to be photographed. However, by affixing the film 123 to the prism-shaped body member 122 or to the transparent mount 132 of inverted trapezoidal shape as mentioned above to thereby place the film 123 at an appropriate distance and angle relative to the lens of the film pack, it is possible to provide a higher refractive index and thus achieve a more effective rainbow-color effect than in the case where the film 123 is affixed directly to the transparent plate-shaped body member 122.
As an alternative, the rainbow-color effect may be produced by forming part of the filtering section to pro-trude spherically so that incident light is repetitively reflected and refracted, within the spherical part of the filtering section, to dispersedly reach the lens of the film pack 2. By pointing the spherically protruding part of the filtering section at a particular object, a rainbow-color effect can be imparted to an image of the object. As an-other alternative, variations of the rainbow-color effect may be provided by arranging an even number of small spheri-cal pieces on part of the filtering section.
Fig. 25 is a perspective view of another embodiment ofthe general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect, using-a kaleidoscopic structure. This photo filter unit 135 comprises a body member 136 in the form of a transparent resin plate, and a kaleidoscopic filter member 138 fixed to the body member 136 such as by an adhesive and having three inner mirror surfaces 137a. Outer surfaces 137b of the filter member 138 are coated with a suitable light-blocking material. The transparent body member 136 has a pair of attaching members 140, each in the form of an elastic rubber band, mounted adjacent to opposite side edges thereof by means of elongate fastener members 139, as in the first embodiment of Fig. 1.
The following paragraphs describe the operation of the general-purpose photo filter units employing the filter members as shown in Figs. 20 to 25. Fig. 26 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter section 65 of Fig. 20 having the front-side protrusion 91 generally in the shape of a "truncated convex polygon".
Namely, by shooting with the flat central top 92 pointed at an object (person), a circular image 142 of the inner pe-riphery of the filtering section appears on a print 141, and a clear image 143 of the person taken through the flat central top 92 appears in the center of the circular image 142 along with light images 144 of the person taken through the sectorial slanting surfaces 94 surrounding the image 143.
Fig. 27 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filtering section 101 of Fig. 21 having the front-side protrusion 102 generally in the shape of a "gabled convex polygon". Namely, by shooting with the center of the filtering section 101 pointed at an object (person), a circular image 146 of the inner periphery of the filtering section 101 appears on a print 145, and a clear image 147 of the person appears in the center of the circu-lar image 146 along with light images 148 of the person taken through the slanting surfaces 103 appearing in a horizontal row in symmetry about the image 147.
Although not specifically shown, when the smaller-diameter end 112b retaining the convex lens 114 is attached to the body member 62 with the concave lens 113 pointed at an object, the filtering section 111 of Fig. 22 can produce a picture where an object looks thinner than in reality.
Conversely, when the greater-diameter end 112a retaining the concave lens 113 is attached to the body member 62 with the convex lens 114 pointed at an object, the filtering section 111 of Fig. 22 can produce a picture where an object looks fatter than in reality.
Further, although not specifically shown, the general-purpose photo units of Figs. 23 and 24 capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect can produce a picture where rainbow-color light stripes resulting from the different refractive indices of the mosaic patterns appear in the background, because the prism-shaped body member 122 or the transparent mount 132 having the film 123 affixed thereto keeps the film 123 at an appropriate distance and angle relative to the lens of the film pack.
Figs. 28A and 28B are diagrams explanatory of an advan-tageous effect provided by the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit 135 of Fig. 25. Speclfically, Fig. 28A is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken without using the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit 135, where no specific effect is imparted to a central image 151 of a person and images 152 and 153 of a potted plant and painting. In contrast, Fig. 28B is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit 135 of Fig. 25, where no specific effect is imparted to the central image 151 of the person and images 152, 154 and 155 of the potted plant as well as images 153, 156 and 157 of the painting surround the central image 151 as the background.
The filter members 12 in the above-described general-purpose photo filter units may have one of particularly-shaped surfaces such as fish-eye, compound-eye or slitted surfaces. Further, these filters 12 may be colorless or have one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or may have one of the coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or a combination of one of the colors and one of the particularly-shaped filtering surfaces, depending on an application.
The general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention described above in relation to various preferred embodiments is also applicable to digital and Polaroid cameras fitted with lenses having an aperture of 15mm or less.
The present invention arranged in the above-mentioned manner affords various benefits. Namely, by means of the attaching members engageable with the camera body, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention is removably attachable to and readily usable with cameras of various types including digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs as well as traditional single-lens reflex and 35mm cameras. Further, by means of the filtering section having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or having one of particularly-shaped surfaces including coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or having a combination of one of the colors and one of the particularly-shaped surfaces, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention enables any user to easily take a picture with a desired special effect. In addition, by means of the filtering section having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or having one of particular shapes such as a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleido-scope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refrac-tive indices, or having a combination of one of the colors and one of the shapes, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention enables any user to easily take a picture with a desired special effect. If rubber bands are used as the attaching members, the photo filter unit can be manufactured at low cost and can be readily adapted to a variety of cameras of different sizes and shapes by utiliz-ing the elasticity of the bands.
Examples of the known removable filters, for use with single-lens reflex cameras and 35mm cameras, include color filters having various colors such as red, blue, yellow and green, and filters having particularly-shaped surfaces such as a coarse surface, fish-eye surface and the like. By attaching such a filter on a single-lens reflex camera or 35mm camera, it is possible to take a picture of an object with a desired special effect; for example, the picture taken can have a desired coloring effect, or can be inten-tionally blurred or 180 panoramic.
In recent years, digital cameras have been gaining popularity at a rapid speed, in which every digitally-taken picture is stored in a memory provided within the camera body. By connecting such a digital camera to, for example, a personal computer, the picture taken can be visually presented on a display screen of the personal computer , and/or printed out on a paper. Thus, unlike the traditional cameras, the digital cameras do not require any film and hence can be used very conveniently. Further, the digital cameras can be used in a variety of ways because they enable users to freely process every digital picture on the display screen of the personal computer. Moreover, because the digital pictures taken can be easily managed on a storage device, such as a hard disc (HD) or magneto-optical disc (MO), provided in a personal computer, the digital cameras enable the pictures to be rearranged or edited more easily and kept in a less space as compared to the traditional cameras which would require printed pictures to be kept on a photograph album and negatives to be kept separately from the printed pictures.
Polaroid (registered trademark of Polaroid Corporation) camera is another typical example of the cameras which require no film to be developed. The Polaroid camera can print out every picture on the spot of photographing, and hence has been used very handily by numerous users.
Further, film packs equipped with a lens (or lens-equipped film packs), which are more commonly known today as single-use or disposable cameras, are also popular handy-type cameras mainly because they are relatively inexpensive.After having used up the film roll, the user takes the entire film pack to a local processing lab or shop, from which the camera body is normally returned to the film maker for recycling of the lens and picture-taking mechanism of the film pack, and only the negative and printed pictures are then given to the user. Thus, the lens-equipped film packs can be very conveniently used as a kind of toy.
However, because there exist substantially no dedicated filters for such digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs --if any, they are very expensive--, a desired coloring, shading or shaping effect achieved by the traditional single-lens reflex cameras or 35mm cameras can not be imparted with these cameras. Also, the digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs have their respective lenses of relatively small aperture in the range of five to six mm which do not fit existing filters for the traditional single-lens reflex or 35mm cameras; in other words, the exiting filters can not be properly used with these digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a photo filter unit which is usable with cameras of various types including digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs as well as traditional single-lens reflex and 35mm cameras and also enables a user to easily take pictures with a desired special effect.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a general-purpose photo filter unit for use with a camera, which comprises a--transparent body member and a ~, , .
filter member provided on the body member. The filter member includes a filtering section being noncolored or having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or having one of particularly-shaped surfaces such as coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or having a combina-tion of one of the colors and one of the particularly-shaped surfaces. The general-purpose photo filter unit also in-cludes one or more attaching members provided on the body member, and the attaching members are engageable with the body of the camera so as to removably attach the photo filter unit to the camera body on a predetermined position thereof such that the filtering section is placed in align-ment with the front surface of the camera lens.
With the attaching members, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention is removably attachable to digital and Polaroid cameras in proper alignment with their lenses in a quite simplified manner. Since the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention can be manufactured at very low cost, it can be used as a kind of toy or disposable photo filter and yet allows a user to take a picture with a desired special effect such as a coloring, soft-focusing or image modifying effect. Particu-larly, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention can be readily attached to lens-equipped film packs for which there has heretofore been no photo filter available, and it allows any user to readily take a picture with a desired special effect, such as a coloring, soft-focusing, image or modifying effect, even with the lens-equipped film pack.
According to another aspect of the present invention,there is provided a general-purpose photo filter unit for use with a camera, which comprises a transparent body member and a filter member provided on the body member as a compo-nent part discrete from the body member and including a filtering section protruding forwardly from the body member.
The filtering section is noncolored or has one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or has one of particular shapes such as a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleidoscope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices, or has a combination of one of the colors and one of the shapes. The general-purpose photo filter unit also includes one or more attaching members similar to the above-mentioned. Because the filter member is discrete from the body member, focusing relative to a film of the camera is substantially facili-tated irrespective of the protruding shape of the filter member. The filter member can be transported or stored separately from the body member without becoming bulky, and it may be attached to the body member only prior to actual use.
In a preferred implementation, the filter member in-cludes a cylindrical frame and the filtering section is fixed to the frame. This arrangement provides for a suffi-cient distance between the camera film and the filtering section and thereby effectlvely avoids a blurred picture.
Preferably, the frame of the filter member is variable in length between 20 and 35 mm for facilitated focusing within this range.
Preferably, the filter member is secured to the body member by means of an adhesive or by being screwed or tightly inserted into a predetermined area of the body member. This arrangement effectively facilitates assemblage and use of the unit.
The filtering section having the shape of the convex polygon or the cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof may be mounted in the frame. By shoot-ing with any one of the concave and convex lenses pointed at an object, the object can look thinner or fatter in a resul-tant picture than in reality.
In one preferred implementation, the film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices is fixed to a surface of the body member having a shape of a triangular prism. This arrangement can place the mosaic pattern film at an appropriate distance and angle relative to the lens of the film pack, so that it is possible to provide a higher refractive index and thus achieve a more effective rainbow-color effect than in the case where the mosaic pattern film is affixed directly to the transparent body member.
Preferably, the attaching members comprise a pair of elastic rubber bands fixed to the body member, adjacent to opposite side edges of the body member, by means of a pair of fastener members through which respective one of the attaching members are threaded, and each of the fasteners has a pair of engaging claws locked in a locking recess formed in the body member for removable attachment to the body member. By just passing the elastic rubber bands around part of the camera body, the photo filter unit can be readily attached to the camera body.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinbelow, by way of example only, with refer-ence to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a front view of a lens-equipped film pack having removably attached thereto a general-purpose photo filter unit in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a front view of the general-purpose photo filter unit shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the photo filter unit taken along the line A - A of Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 is a front view of a general-purpose photo filter unit in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 5 is a perspective view explanatory of a manner in which attaching members of the photo filter unit of Fig. 4 are removably mounted on a body member of the unit;
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of an example of a filter member of the photo filter unit of Fig. 1 or 4 which has an embossed filtering surface;-Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another example of the filter member which has a scratched filtering surface;
Fig. 8 is a perspective view of still another exampleof the filter member which is shaped to have a concave surface:
Fig. 9 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member which has a protruding surface gener-ally in the shape of a truncated pyramid;
Fig. 10 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member which has, on its front side, a pro-truding filtering surface generally in the shape of a trun-cated triangular prism;
Fig. 11 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member having the embossed fil-tering surface of Fig. 6;
Fig. 12 is a diagram schematically showing a picturetaken by use of the filter member having the scratched filtering surface of Fig. 7;
Fig. 13 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member having the protruding filtering surface of Fig. 9;
Fig. 14 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member having the protruding filtering surface of Fig. 10;
Fig. 15 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 16 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present inven-tion;
Fig. 17 is an exploded perspective view of the photo filter unit of Fig. 16;
Fig. 18 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 19 is an exploded perspective view of the photo filter unit of Fig. 18;
Fig. 20 is a perspective view of an example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which is disk-shaped and has a front-side protrusion generally in the shape of a truncated convex polygon;
Fig. 21 is a perspective view of another example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which is disk-shaped and has a front-side protrusion generally in the shape of a gabled convex poly-gon;
Fig. 22 is a sectional side view of still another example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which has concave and convex lens on both sides thereof;
Fig. 23 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit which is capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect;
Fig. 24 is a plan view--of another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect;
Fig. 25 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect, using a kaleidoscopic structure;
Fig. 26 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filtering section of Fig. 20;
Fig. 27 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filtering section of Fig. Zl; and Figs. 28A and 28B are diagrams explanatory of an advan-tageous effect provided by the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit of Fig. 25.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention or its application or uses.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinbelow in relation to a lens-equipped film pack, although the present invention is applicable to cam-eras of various other types.
Fig. 1 is a front view of the lens-equipped film pack or disposable camera 2 having removably attached thereto a general-purpose photo filter unit 1 in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. The general-purpose photo filter unit 1 is mounted right in front of a lens section 3 of the film pack 2 in face-to-face relation thereto, and the lens section 3 includes a relatively small lens having a small aperture in the range of 5 to 6 mm.
Note that the general-purpose photo filter unit 1 of the present invention is also applicable to digital and Polaroid (registered trademark of Polaroid Corporation) cameras fitted with lenses having an aperture of 15mm or less, as well as traditional 35mm cameras.
The lens-equipped film pack 2 comprises a body 4 having an unexposed film previously loaded therein, and a picture-taking mech~n~ ~m, similar to those of traditional 35mm cameras, which includes the lens section 3, view finder 5, shutter 6, flash 7, flash button 8, film take-up knob and counter window: the take-up knob and counter window are not shown in Fig. 1 because they are on the reverse or rear side of the film pack 2. Having used up the pre-loaded film roll, the user takes the entire film pack 2 to a local processing lab or shop so that the body 4 is returned there-from to the film maker for recycling of the lens and picture-taking mechanism, and then only the negative and printed pictures are given to the user.
Fig. 2 is a front view of the general-purpose photo filter unit 1 of Fig. 1. As shown, the photo filter unit 1 comprises a body member 11 formed of transparent synthetic resin into a generally square plate, and a filter member 12 located centrally on the body member 11. The filter member 12 is greater in size than the lens section 3 of the film pack 2 and has a circular or square shape. The filter member 12 may be colorless, or may have one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three , of these colors. Also, the filter member 12 may have one of particularly-shaped surfaces such as coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces. The transpar-ent synthetic resin forming the body member 11 of the photo filter unit 1 may be thermoplastic resin, thermosetting resin or reactive setting resin. More specifically, the transparent synthetic resin may be acrylic resin, polymethyl pentene, polycarbonate, polyacrylate, polystyrene, epoxy resin, AS resin, diallyl phthalate resin, MS resin, ADC
resin, vinyl chloride, multifunctional acryl (thermosetting or W setting) or ABS resin. Alternatively, copolymer or polymer alloy of any of the above-mentioned resins may be used as long as it has desired transparency.
Because the body member 11 made of such synthetic resin can be effectively protected from damage if it is acciden-tally dropped, is very light in weight and yet inexpensive, the user can use the photo filter unit 1 freely without having to worry about its possible damage.
As also shown in Fig. 2, the body member 11 has a pair of elongate locking holes 13 adjacent to opposite side edges thereof, and a pair of attaching members 15, each in the form of an elastic rubber band, are mounted on the body member 11 by means of elongate fastener members 14 removably locked in the respective locking holes 13. By use of the attaching members 15, the body member 11 with the filter member 12 can be removably attached to the body 4 of the lens-equipped film pack 2. The filter member 12 has a small central through-hole 16. When this small central hole 16 is , pointed at a particular ob]ect, such as a person, at the time of shooting, the particular object can be taken in an unfiltered sharp image while the surrounding scenery is taken in a filtered image. The same selective filtering effect may be achieved by forming a small non-filtering region centrally on the filter member 12 in stead of forming the central through-hole 16. Of course, the entire filter member 12 may be formed to have the filtering function.
Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the photo filter unit 1 taken along the line A - A of Fig. 2. Each of the fastener members 14 is formed of flexible resin into a substantially U-shaped or channel-shaped section, and the attaching mem-bers 15 are threaded through the corresponding fastener members 14 adjacent to the opposite side edges of the body member 11. Each of the fastener members 14 has outward engaging claws 17 at the bottom of its opposed leg portions, which are locked in recesses 18 formed in the reverse side of the body member 11 in communication with the correspond-ing locking hole 13.
Each of the fastener members 14 is removably fixed to the body member 11 as follows. Namely, in Fig. 3, the longitudinally-central portion of the fastener member 14, having the attaching member 15 in the form of a rubber band previously threaded therethrough, is first inserted into the locking hole 13 as shown by downward arrows ~ with the engaging claws 17 pressed inwardly (i.e., toward each other) as shown by arrows ~3 until the upper surface of each of the claws 17 is located below the upper end of the corresponding recess 18. Then, the engaging claws 17 are released from the pressing force, upon which the claws 17 spring back outwardly away from each other as shown by arrow ~ to be resiliently locked in the recesses 18 against accidental detachment from the body member 11. By passing the attach-ing members 15 around part of the body 4 of the lens-equipped film pack 2, the body member 11 can be removably attached to the film pack body 4, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is a front view of a general-purpose photo filter unit 21 in accordance with a second preferred embodi-ment of the present invention. Here, elements having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are repre-sented by the same reference numerals and will not be de-scribed in detail to avoid unnecessary duplication. The general-purpose photo filter unit 21 according to the second preferred embodiment is characterized in that a pair of locking holes 22 are formed, in each of opposite side edge portions of the body member 11, in vertically spaced-apart relation to each other. Each of the locking holes 22 opens outwardly through a sectorial guide recess 23 that gradually becomes wider in the outward direction.
Fig. 5 is a view explanatory of a manner in which each of the attaching members 15 is removably mounted on the body member 11 in the second embodiment. The attaching member 15 in the form of a rubber band is first inserted into the upper and lower locking holes 22 through the respective sectorial guide recesses 23 in such a manner that part of the attaching member 15 extends between the locking holes 22. With the thus-mounted attaching members 15, the body member 11 can be removably attached to the body 4 of the lens-equipped film pack 2.
The attaching members 15 may comprise a single rubber band rather than the two separate rubber bands, or alterna-tively each of the attaching members 15 may be a rigid hook-shaped member to be hooked on the film pack body 4 from above or a sucking disc to be adhered to the front surface of the film pack body 4 by suction, although the attaching members 15 will be described as two separate rubber bands for convenience of explanation.
Now, with reference to Figs. 6 to 10, a description will be made about several examples of the filter member 12 each having a particularly-shaped filtering surface.
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of an example of the filter member 12 which has an embossed filtering surface.
That is, a multiplicity of tiny raised and recessed portions 25 are mechanically formed on the filtering surface so that soft focus, that is, a slight blurred photographic effect as obtained by setting a lens slightly out of focus, may be obtained. The through-hole 16 is formed centrally in the filter member 12.
Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another example of the filter member 12 which has a scratched filtering surface to function as a cross screen: that is, a plurality of vertical and horizontal grooves 27 of very small width and depth are formed, using a metal comb or the like, in the filtering surface in a grid-like configuration. In an alternative, additional grooves may also be formed in such a manner that one or more of the additional grooves obliquely cross the vertical and horizontal shallow grooves 27 at each intersec-tion 28 between the grooves 27, although not specifically shown.
Fig. 8 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member 12. In Fig. 8, this filter member 12 has a substantially s~uare shape and is processed to have a concave filtering surface that is curved in the horizontal direction but not in the vertical direction. Although not specifically shown, the filter member 12 may have a convex filtering surface that is curved only in the horizontal direction. Further, the filter member 12 may have the concave filtering surface on one side and the convex filter-ing surface on the other side so that one photo filter unitcan function as concave-filtering and convex-filtering surface filters by just being reversed.
If a person is photographed with the concave filtering surface of the filter member 12 pointed at the person, the person can be imaged slimmer or thinner in the horizontal direction. Conversely, if the person is photographed with the convex filtering surface of the filter member 12 pointed at the person, the person can be imaged fatter in the hori-zontal direction.
Alternatively, the concave filtering surface of the filter member 12 may be one that is curved only in the vertical direction rather than only in the horizontal direc-tion, or curved spherically. In still another alternative, a concave or convex filtering surface portion may be formed on part of the filter member 12; in this case, by photo-graphing an object such as a person with the concave or convex filtering surface portion pointed at a particular part of the subject, the particular part can be imaged in compressed or expanded form as desired by the user.
Fig. 9 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member 12 which has, on its front side, a protruding filtering surface 33 generally in the shape of a truncated pyramid.
Fig. 10 is a perspective view of still another example of the filter member 12 which has, on its front side, a protruding filtering surface 35 generally in the shape of a "truncated triangular prism" 35. The protruding filtering surface 35 may be in the shape of any other polyhedron than the pentahedron shown in Figs. 9 and 10, such as a hexahedron.
The following paragraphs describe the operation of the examples of the filter member 12 of Figs. 6 to 10, with reference to Figs. 11 to 14. Fig. 11 is a diagram schemati-cally showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the embossed filtering surface 25 of Fig. 6. Namely, by shooting with the central hole 16 of the filter member 12 pointed at an object (person), the person can be taken in a clear image as represented at 41 while the surrounding scenery can be taken in an image with some blur.
Fig. 12 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the scratched filtering surface 27 of Fig. 7. Namely, by shooting with an intersection between the vertical and horizontal grooves 27 pointed at an object (building), the object can be taken in an image with a bright cross-shaped flare. Thus, the use of this scratched filtering surface or cross screen can impart a visual accent to the image. If the scratched filtering surface has one or more additional grooves obliquely cross-ing the vertical and horizontal shallow grooves 27 at each of the intersections 28, then the image of the object can have an even brighter cross-shaped flare and hence a stron-ger visual accent.
Fig. 13 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the protruding filtering surface 33 of Fig. 9 generally in the shape of a truncated pyramid. Namely t by photographing an object (person) with the protruding filtering surface 33 at the person, the person can be taken in a central image 51 along with four additional, identical images 52 surrounding the central image 51.
Fig. 14 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter member 12 having the protruding filtering surface 35 of Fig. 10 generally in the shape of a truncated triangular prism. Namely, by photographing an objéct (person) with the protruding filtering surface 35 at the person, the person can be taken in a central image 54 along with two additional, identical images 55 to the left and right of the central image 54.
Next, with reference to Figs. 15 to 19, other embodi-ments of the present invention will be described where the filter member and the transparent body member are formed as discrete component parts. Fig. 15 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit 61 in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention, where elements having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are represented by the same reference numerals and will not be described in detail to avoid unnecessary duplication. The photo filter unit 61 in accordance with the third embodiment comprises a body member 62 in the form of a transparent resin plate and a filter member 63 attached to the body member 61. The filter member 63 includes a cylindrical frame 64 and a filtering section 65 secured to the front end of the frame 64.
To facilitate focusing relative to the film of the pack, the frame 64 is constructed to be variable in length between 20 and 35 mm. The variable length of the frame 64 allows the magnification to be accurately changed within a limit of about 10~. Also, the frame 64 has a contour ta-pered in the rearward direction so that its inner diameter is greater at the front end 64a than at the rear end 64b.
In the illustrated example, the filtering section 65 has an aperture of about 15mm. The frame 64 with the filtering member 63 is secured at the rear end 64b to a central open-ing of the body member 62 by means of an adhesive 66. Thefiltering section 65 is colorless, or has one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of these colors.
Fig. 16 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit 71 in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present inven-tion, where elements having the same functions as those in the third embodiment are represented by the same reference numerals and will not be described in detail to avoid unnec-essary duplication. The photo filter unit 71 in accordance with the fourth embodiment comprises a body member 72 in the form of a transparent resin plate and a filter member 73 attached to the body member 72. The filter member 73 in-cludes a cylindrical frame 74 and a filtering section 65secured to the front end of the frame 74. The frame 74 has a contour tapered in the rearward direction so that its inner diameter is greater at the front end 74a than at the rear end 74b. As shown in Fig. 17 in an exploded perspec-tive, the frame 74 with the filtering section 65 is remov-ably attached to the body member 72 through engagement between a male thread formed on a rear end portion of the frame 74 and a female thread formed along a central opening 76 provided in the body member 72.
Fig. 18 is a perspective view of a photo filter unit 82 n accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present inven-tion, where elements having the same functions as those in the third embodiment are represented by the same reference numérals and will not be described in detail to avoid unnec-essary duplication. The photo filter unit 81 in accordance with the fourth embodiment comprises a body member 82 in the form of a transparent resin plate and a filter member 83 attached to the body member 82. The filter member 83 in-cludes a cylindrical frame 84 and a filtering section 65 secured to the front end 84a of the frame 84. The frame 84 has a contour tapered in the rearward direction so that its inner diameter is greater at the front end 84a than at the rear end 84b. As shown in Fig. 19 in an exploded perspec-tive, the frame 84 has an annular flange 85 on its rear end, and the annular flange 85 has two outward projections 86 spaced apart from each other by 180 along the circumference thereof.
As further shown in Fig. 19, the body member 82 has a recessed portion 87 extending from the top down to a central portion thereof, and the width of the recessed portion 87 is identical with the diameter of the rear end 84b of the frame 84. Lower end 87a of the recessed portion 87 is formed into a semicircle having a same diameter as the rear end 84b. In addition, a channel 88 is formed along opposed vertical edges and lower-end semicircular edge of the recessed por-tion 87 in such a manner that diametrically opposite por-tions of the annular flange 85 of the frame 84 are fitted in the channels 88 for vertical sliding movement therealong.
Two cavities 89 are formed in respective lower ends of the vertical straight portions of the channel 88. To mount the filter member 83 on the body member 82, the annular flange 85 of the frame 84 is fitted into the channel 88 from above and slid down into contact with the lower end of the semi-circular edge of the recessed portion 87. After that, the frame 84 is turned in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction to allow the outward projections 86 to be fitted in the corresponding cavities 89. In this way, the filter member 83 with the filtering section 65 is removably at-tached to the body member 82.
The following paragraphs detail examples of the filter-ing section that may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodi-ments, with reference to Figs. 20 and 21. Fig. 20 is a perspective view of an example of the filtering section 65 which is dlsk-shaped and secured to the front end 64a of the frame member 64, 74 or 84 of the filter unit 63, 73 or 83.
Specifically, the filtering section 65 has a front-side protrusion 91 generally in the shape of a "truncated convex polygon" and terminating in a flat central top 92, and each of sectorial slanting surfaces 94 of the truncated convex polygon 91 progressively widens in a direction from the central top 92 to a flat outer edge 93 of the filtering section 65. The filtering section 65 is secured to the front end 64a of the frame member 64, 74 or 84 by being fitted in a groove formed in the inner peripheral surface of the front end 64a.
Fig. 21 is a perspective view of another example of the filtering section which is also disk-shaped and having a front-side protrusion 102 generally in the shape of a "ga-bled convex polygon". In this filtering section 101, the protrusion 102 has a plurality of slanting surfaces 103 extending in the same direction and arranged in symmetry about the apex of the gable; thus, the two slanting surfaces 103 nearest to a flat outer edge 104 have a smallest degree of protrusion. This filtéring section 101 is also secured to the front end 64a of the frame member 64, 74 or 84 by being fitted in a groove formed in the inner peripheral surface of the front end 64a.
Fig. 22 is a sectional side view of still another example of the filtering section which may be suitably employed in the general-purpose filter units according to the third to fifth embodiments and which is characterized by having concave and convex lens on both sides thereof. More specifically, this filtering section 111 has a concave lens 113 secured to a greater-diameter end (upper end in the figure) 112a of a cylindrical frame 112 and a convex Iens 114 secured to a smaller-diameter end (lower end in the figure) 112b of the frame 112. The filtering section 111 can be attached, at either the greater-diameter end 112a or the smaller-diameter end 112b, to the body member 62 or 72 by means of the adhesive 66 or by being screwed or tightly inserted therein as noted earlier in relation to Figs. 15 to 19 .
Further, according to the present invention, the fil-tering surface or section of the filter member 12 may com-prise a transparent sheet that has a function of dispersing light to form an iridescent striped pattern thereon, other than those shown in Figs. 6 to 10. The filter member 12 with such a transparent sheet can impart a rainbow-color effect to an image, utilizing strong light reflected from a particular object such as a window pane on a building.
The following paragraphs describe such a general-pur-pose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect, with reference to Figs. 23 and 24. Fig. 23 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect. This photo filter unit 121 comprises a transparent body member 122 in the shape of a triangular prism, and a film 123 fixed to one surface of the body member 122 and having mosaic patterns. The transparent body member 122, which may be formed of acrylic resin, has a pair of attach-ing members 125, each in the form of an elastic rubber band,mounted adjacent to opposite side edges thereof by means of elongate fastener members 124, as in the first embodiment of Fig. 1. In the illustrated example, the film 123 is parti-tioned into a total of twenty square segments 126 --four segments in the vertical direction and five segments in the horizontal direction--, and each of the segments has a mosaic pattern of refractive index different from those of the other segments' mosaic patterns.
Fig. 24 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect. This general-purpose photo filter unit 131 comprises a body member 133 in the form of a trans-parent resin sheep, a transparent mount 132 formed of acrylic resin into an inverted trapezoidal shape and secured to the body member 133 by means of an adhesive or the like, and the above-mentioned film 123 affixed to the front side of the mount 132.
If the above-mentioned-film 123 is affixed directly to the transparent plate-shaped body member 122, it would only produce an insufficient and instable rainbow-color effect due to its low refractive index, or would sometimes produce no rainbow-color effect at all depending on angles and positions of the mosaic patterns relative to an object to be photographed. However, by affixing the film 123 to the prism-shaped body member 122 or to the transparent mount 132 of inverted trapezoidal shape as mentioned above to thereby place the film 123 at an appropriate distance and angle relative to the lens of the film pack, it is possible to provide a higher refractive index and thus achieve a more effective rainbow-color effect than in the case where the film 123 is affixed directly to the transparent plate-shaped body member 122.
As an alternative, the rainbow-color effect may be produced by forming part of the filtering section to pro-trude spherically so that incident light is repetitively reflected and refracted, within the spherical part of the filtering section, to dispersedly reach the lens of the film pack 2. By pointing the spherically protruding part of the filtering section at a particular object, a rainbow-color effect can be imparted to an image of the object. As an-other alternative, variations of the rainbow-color effect may be provided by arranging an even number of small spheri-cal pieces on part of the filtering section.
Fig. 25 is a perspective view of another embodiment ofthe general-purpose photo filter unit capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect, using-a kaleidoscopic structure. This photo filter unit 135 comprises a body member 136 in the form of a transparent resin plate, and a kaleidoscopic filter member 138 fixed to the body member 136 such as by an adhesive and having three inner mirror surfaces 137a. Outer surfaces 137b of the filter member 138 are coated with a suitable light-blocking material. The transparent body member 136 has a pair of attaching members 140, each in the form of an elastic rubber band, mounted adjacent to opposite side edges thereof by means of elongate fastener members 139, as in the first embodiment of Fig. 1.
The following paragraphs describe the operation of the general-purpose photo filter units employing the filter members as shown in Figs. 20 to 25. Fig. 26 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filter section 65 of Fig. 20 having the front-side protrusion 91 generally in the shape of a "truncated convex polygon".
Namely, by shooting with the flat central top 92 pointed at an object (person), a circular image 142 of the inner pe-riphery of the filtering section appears on a print 141, and a clear image 143 of the person taken through the flat central top 92 appears in the center of the circular image 142 along with light images 144 of the person taken through the sectorial slanting surfaces 94 surrounding the image 143.
Fig. 27 is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the filtering section 101 of Fig. 21 having the front-side protrusion 102 generally in the shape of a "gabled convex polygon". Namely, by shooting with the center of the filtering section 101 pointed at an object (person), a circular image 146 of the inner periphery of the filtering section 101 appears on a print 145, and a clear image 147 of the person appears in the center of the circu-lar image 146 along with light images 148 of the person taken through the slanting surfaces 103 appearing in a horizontal row in symmetry about the image 147.
Although not specifically shown, when the smaller-diameter end 112b retaining the convex lens 114 is attached to the body member 62 with the concave lens 113 pointed at an object, the filtering section 111 of Fig. 22 can produce a picture where an object looks thinner than in reality.
Conversely, when the greater-diameter end 112a retaining the concave lens 113 is attached to the body member 62 with the convex lens 114 pointed at an object, the filtering section 111 of Fig. 22 can produce a picture where an object looks fatter than in reality.
Further, although not specifically shown, the general-purpose photo units of Figs. 23 and 24 capable of imparting a rainbow-color effect can produce a picture where rainbow-color light stripes resulting from the different refractive indices of the mosaic patterns appear in the background, because the prism-shaped body member 122 or the transparent mount 132 having the film 123 affixed thereto keeps the film 123 at an appropriate distance and angle relative to the lens of the film pack.
Figs. 28A and 28B are diagrams explanatory of an advan-tageous effect provided by the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit 135 of Fig. 25. Speclfically, Fig. 28A is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken without using the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit 135, where no specific effect is imparted to a central image 151 of a person and images 152 and 153 of a potted plant and painting. In contrast, Fig. 28B is a diagram schematically showing a picture taken by use of the kaleidoscopic-type filter unit 135 of Fig. 25, where no specific effect is imparted to the central image 151 of the person and images 152, 154 and 155 of the potted plant as well as images 153, 156 and 157 of the painting surround the central image 151 as the background.
The filter members 12 in the above-described general-purpose photo filter units may have one of particularly-shaped surfaces such as fish-eye, compound-eye or slitted surfaces. Further, these filters 12 may be colorless or have one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or may have one of the coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or a combination of one of the colors and one of the particularly-shaped filtering surfaces, depending on an application.
The general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention described above in relation to various preferred embodiments is also applicable to digital and Polaroid cameras fitted with lenses having an aperture of 15mm or less.
The present invention arranged in the above-mentioned manner affords various benefits. Namely, by means of the attaching members engageable with the camera body, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention is removably attachable to and readily usable with cameras of various types including digital and Polaroid cameras and lens-equipped film packs as well as traditional single-lens reflex and 35mm cameras. Further, by means of the filtering section having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or having one of particularly-shaped surfaces including coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or having a combination of one of the colors and one of the particularly-shaped surfaces, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention enables any user to easily take a picture with a desired special effect. In addition, by means of the filtering section having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of the colors, or having one of particular shapes such as a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleido-scope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refrac-tive indices, or having a combination of one of the colors and one of the shapes, the general-purpose photo filter unit of the present invention enables any user to easily take a picture with a desired special effect. If rubber bands are used as the attaching members, the photo filter unit can be manufactured at low cost and can be readily adapted to a variety of cameras of different sizes and shapes by utiliz-ing the elasticity of the bands.
Claims (8)
1. A photo filter unit for a camera comprising:
a transparent body member;
a filter member provided on said body member, said filter member having a filtering section being noncolored, or having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of said colors, or having one of particularly-shaped surfaces including coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or having a combination of one of said colors and one of said particularly-shaped surfaces; and one or more attaching members provided on said body member, said attaching members being engageable with a body of the camera so as to removably attach said photo filter unit to the body on a predetermined position thereof such that said filtering section is placed in alignment with a front surface of a lens of the camera.
a transparent body member;
a filter member provided on said body member, said filter member having a filtering section being noncolored, or having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of said colors, or having one of particularly-shaped surfaces including coarse, embossed, fish-eye, compound-eye and slitted surfaces, or having a combination of one of said colors and one of said particularly-shaped surfaces; and one or more attaching members provided on said body member, said attaching members being engageable with a body of the camera so as to removably attach said photo filter unit to the body on a predetermined position thereof such that said filtering section is placed in alignment with a front surface of a lens of the camera.
2. A photo filter unit for a camera comprising:
a transparent body member;
a filter member provided on said body member as a component part discrete from said body member, said filter member including a filtering section protruding forwardly from said body member, said filtering section being noncolored, or having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of said colors, or having one of particular shapes including a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleidoscope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices, or having a combination of one of said colors and one of said shapes; and one or more attaching members provided on said body member, said attaching members being engageable with a body of the camera so as to removably attach said photo filter unit to the body on a predetermined position thereof such that said filtering section is placed in alignment with a front surface of a lens of the camera.
a transparent body member;
a filter member provided on said body member as a component part discrete from said body member, said filter member including a filtering section protruding forwardly from said body member, said filtering section being noncolored, or having one of blue, pink, yellow, green and sepia colors or a combination of any three of said colors, or having one of particular shapes including a convex polygon, a cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof, a kaleidoscope or a film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices, or having a combination of one of said colors and one of said shapes; and one or more attaching members provided on said body member, said attaching members being engageable with a body of the camera so as to removably attach said photo filter unit to the body on a predetermined position thereof such that said filtering section is placed in alignment with a front surface of a lens of the camera.
3. A photo filter unit as recited in claim 2 wherein said filter member includes a cylindrical frame and said filtering section is fixed to said frame.
4. A photo filter unit as recited in claim 3 wherein said frame of said filter member is variable in length between 20 and 35 mm.
5. A photo filter unit as recited in claim 2 wherein said filter member has a through-hole formed centrally thereof and an embossed surface surrounding said through-hole for effecting soft focus.
6. A photo filter unit as recited in claim 3 wherein said filtering section having the shape of said convex polygon or said cylinder containing concave and convex lenses at both ends thereof is mounted in said frame.
7. A photo filter unit as recited in claim 2 wherein said film having mosaic patterns of different refractive indices is fixed to a surface of said body member having a shape of a triangular prism.
8. A photo filter unit as recited in claim 2 wherein said attaching members comprise a pair of elastic rubber bands fixed to said body member, adjacent to opposite side edges of said body member, by means of a pair of fastener members through which respective one of said attaching members are threaded, and wherein each of said fasteners has a pair of engaging claws locked in a locking recess formed in said body member for removable attachment to said body member.
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP1997001437U JP3042480U (en) | 1997-03-07 | 1997-03-07 | Photo filter |
| JP9-1437 | 1997-03-07 | ||
| JP9-215274 | 1997-08-08 | ||
| JP21527497A JPH1152454A (en) | 1997-08-08 | 1997-08-08 | General purpose photo-filter |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2230360A1 true CA2230360A1 (en) | 1998-09-07 |
Family
ID=26334653
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA002230360A Abandoned CA2230360A1 (en) | 1997-03-07 | 1998-02-24 | General-purpose photo filter unit |
Country Status (2)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| KR (1) | KR19980079824A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2230360A1 (en) |
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US8385004B2 (en) | 2011-07-28 | 2013-02-26 | Muses Consolidated | Accessory for portable imaging device |
| EP2911001A1 (en) * | 2014-02-25 | 2015-08-26 | Nokia Technologies OY | Apparatus for portable device accessories |
-
1998
- 1998-02-24 CA CA002230360A patent/CA2230360A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 1998-03-03 KR KR1019980006893A patent/KR19980079824A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
Cited By (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US8385004B2 (en) | 2011-07-28 | 2013-02-26 | Muses Consolidated | Accessory for portable imaging device |
| EP2911001A1 (en) * | 2014-02-25 | 2015-08-26 | Nokia Technologies OY | Apparatus for portable device accessories |
| US9883016B2 (en) | 2014-02-25 | 2018-01-30 | Nokia Technologies Oy | Method and apparatus for portable device accessories |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| KR19980079824A (en) | 1998-11-25 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
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| FZDE | Dead |