GB2530975A

GB2530975A - Cleaning lens protection device

Info

Publication number: GB2530975A
Application number: GB1415794.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Leslie Michael
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-09-06
Filing date: 2014-09-06
Publication date: 2016-04-13
Also published as: GB201415794D0

Abstract

A lens protection device that incorporates an integrated lens cleaning element for use on a camera/camcorder/video camera comprising rigid parts 1-4 and a cleaning pad 5. The lens cleaning element will preferably either be manually or automatically operated from the outside of the protection device. The cleaning element will preferably be rotational on an offset axis to ensure full lens coverage. The cleaning element will preferably be a cloth, a brush, a blade or a combination of the aforementioned.

Description

This invention relates to a device that combines protecting and cleaning the front element of an optical lens.

When a photographer or videographer is working in an outdoor or similarly contaminated environment the front element of a lens can get dirty or marked by these contaminates. These marks can cause images/video to be ruined. The conventional method for cleaning a lens is the use of a cloth and a lens cap is used for keeping the lens clean when not in use. Manually cleaning with a cloth poses three problems; 1) ensuring 100% coverage of the front element 2) remembering to clean the lens and 3) remembering the cloth.

To overcome these problems, the present invention proposes a lens protection device which has an integrated lens cleaning element. A cleaning element on the inboard side of the lens cap which is in contact with the front lens element. This element is driven by a motion applied to a feature on the outboard side of the cap. The cap provides separation between the inboard side and the environment on the outboard side.

In the preferred embodiment the lens cleaning element is driven by twisting a grip located on the outboard side of the lens cap. On the inboard lens side a cleaning element moves across the surface of the front element in a circular motion. This circular motion could be directly in relation to the external force or preferably in an offset planetary motion as shown in figures 3a4.

The invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows the product from the outboard side Figure 2 shows an exploded view of the product assembly Figure 3 shows the outboard side of the invention with a motion indicator Figure 4 shows the inboard side of the invention again with a motion indicator Figure 5 shows a cut-away of this embodiments gear system from the inboard side Figure 6 shows an angled view of the inboard side of the invention The labels in figure 2 show the assembly parts; parts 1-4 show the rigid parts, part 5 is the cleaning pad. The rigid parts in this embodiment are intended to be made from a plastic material such as ABS or Nylon (PA) but could be manufactured from any suitable rigid material. The cleaning pad in this embodiment is intended to be manufactured from a microfiber cloth material but could be made from any material or combination of materials e.g. a cloth and wiping blade Figures 34 show the how the invention operates; by twisting grip (6) in the direction (7) the off centre disc and pad (4E5) rotates around the axis (8) in the direction (9).

When the invention is in place on the front element of a lens, the motion described in the previous paragraph causes the cleaning pad to clean the whole front element. The advantage gained by the offset planetary rotating element is that there is no dead spot in the centre.