JPH0359410B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an endoscope camera, and more particularly to an endoscope camera equipped with a data imprinting device.

Generally, when a data imprinting device is used to imprint predetermined data onto a stored film, a means is used in which the photographing optical system and the data imprinting optical system are provided separately from each other, and a means in which a part of the optical system is shared. ing. However, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 of Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-19173, for example, with the conventional means of separately providing a photographing optical system and a data imprinting optical system, the camera becomes larger and the mechanism increases. However, it had the disadvantage of complicating the process. Also, for example, JP-A-52
As shown in Figure 1 of Publication No.-37424, the conventional
In the case where the photographing optical system and the data imprinting optical system are partially shared, a half mirror is used to guide the data light beam of the data imprinting device onto the film, so the light intensity of the data light beam is controlled by the half mirror. As a result, the amount of light reaching the film becomes extremely small. Therefore,
This necessitates increasing the amount of light emitted by the data imprinting device, which is undesirable from the viewpoint of power consumption.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances,
The purpose is to provide an endoscope camera that has a simple and compact configuration and is capable of efficiently imprinting data.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an endoscope camera 12 with a film cassette 10 housed therein attached to an endoscope 14, which includes an operating section 16 and an operating section 16. 16, has an irradiation window and an observation window at the tip, and generates photographing light or collimation light for illuminating the insertion section 18 made of a flexible tube and the subject area irradiated from the irradiation window. It is composed of a light source device 20 and a guide section 22 that connects the light source device 20 and the operation section 16. An eyepiece section 24 is provided on the side opposite to the side where the insertion section 18 of the operation section 16 is provided, and the endoscope camera 12 is attached to this eyepiece section 24. There is. An image guide 26 (shown in FIG. 2) that connects the observation window and the eyepiece is provided in the insertion section 18, and this image guide 26 displays the image of the subject obtained through the observation window. This is for guiding the image to the eyepiece section 24 through the image guide 26. Furthermore, a light guide that connects the irradiation window and the light source device 20 is provided in the insertion portion 18 and the guide portion 22, and this light guide receives photographing light or collation light from the light source device 20. This is to guide the subject through the irradiation window.

In order to explain the endoscope camera 12 in more detail, FIG. 2 shows a cross section together with an eyepiece 24 of an endoscope 14 to which the camera 12 is attached.

Each of the proximal end and the distal end within the eyepiece section 24 includes one end of an image guide 26 for observing the inner surface of the body cavity, which is a subject, and an observation image forming surface 28 formed on the image guide 26. At this position, a photographing and eyepiece lens 30 is disposed coaxially with one end of the image guide 26. The image of the subject formed on the observation image forming surface 28 passes through the photographing and eyepiece lens 30 to the film cassette 1 inserted into the endoscope camera 12.
The image is formed on a film 32 of zero. In the photographing optical path between the photographing/eyepiece lens 30 and the film 32, the endoscope camera 12 includes:
A light beam splitter 34 for photometry is provided.

This beam splitter 34 is formed as a regular square prism by combining two triangular prisms 36 and 38 with the same size and the same refractive index and whose bottom surfaces are isosceles right triangles. The joint surface of the lens is disposed so as to cross the photographing optical path at an angle of 45° to the optical axis thereof. A beam splitting surface 40 is provided between the bonding surfaces, and this has a half mirror thin film 42 at least at a position crossing the photographing optical path. This half mirror thin film 42 divides the light beam from the observation image forming surface 28, and the divided husband portion of the light beam is guided onto the surface of the film 32, and a part of the divided light beam is used to control the exposure amount, for example. The light is guided onto a photoelectric converter 44 as a photometric element provided at the bottom in the figure to be measured.

On the other hand, the light beam splitting surface 40 has a total reflection mirror 46 partially located outside the photographing optical path. The total reflection mirror 46 is set so as to reflect the data light beam from the data display element 48 constituting the data imprinting device and guide it out of the range of the photographed image on the film 32. A converging lens 50 is provided on the side surface of the beam splitter 34 on the film 32 side in the data optical path. This converging lens 50 is connected to the data display element 4.
This is for forming an image of the data light beam from 8 on the film 32.

The operation of the endoscope camera configured as described above will be explained below.

The light beam from the subject image is directed to the observation image forming surface 28
The outer frame is defined by the photographing and eyepiece lens 30.
The half mirror thin film 42 of the beam splitter 34
The light beam for photography is guided onto the surface of the film 32, and the light beam for photometry is guided onto the photoelectric converter 44. On the other hand, the data light beam from the data display element 48 is reflected by the total reflection mirror 46, its optical axis direction is changed to the direction of the film 32 surface, and the data light beam is converged by the converging lens 50 and guided onto the film 32 surface. .

Here, the half mirror thin film 42 of the beam splitting surface 40 is provided in the shadow optical path, and the total reflection mirror 46 of the beam splitting surface 40 is provided in the imprint data optical path,
The photographing optical path and the imprint data optical path are set so as not to overlap.

That is, by using the beam splitting surface 40 of the light beam splitter 34 for photometry, a half mirror thin film 42 is placed in the photographing optical path of this beam dividing surface 40, and a total reflection mirror is placed outside the photographing optical path of this beam dividing surface 40. 46 respectively, it is possible to imprint data with a simpler configuration and to downsize the camera compared to the conventional method in which a separate optical path for data imprinting is provided. Furthermore, since the data imprinting optical path is changed using the total reflection mirror 46, data can be imprinted more efficiently and power consumption can be reduced compared to the conventional system using a half mirror. Furthermore, since the photographing optical path and the data imprinting optical path are separate, it is possible to prevent adverse effects on the subject image, such as flare, caused by the data image.

Next, a second embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to FIG. Incidentally, the same parts as in the above embodiment are given the same reference numerals, and the explanation thereof will be omitted.

The beam splitter 34 includes two triangular prisms 52 of different sizes and each having a right-angled isosceles triangular base.
It has 54. In this embodiment, the triangular prism 52 on the eyepiece 24 side is set large, and the triangular prism 54 on the film 32 side is set small. In these two triangular prisms 36 and 52, the side surfaces including the oblique sides of the respective bottom surfaces are bonded surfaces, and a half mirror thin film 42 as a beam splitting surface 40 is provided between these bonded surfaces.

A small triangular prism 5 on the film 32 side
The size of 4 is set to the minimum necessary for the light beam from the object image on the observation image forming surface 28 to be divided by the half mirror thin film 42. Furthermore, the two triangular prisms 52 and 54 are set so that the lower ends of their joint surfaces coincide with each other. Due to the coincidence of the lower ends of the cemented surfaces, the light beam splitting surface 40 of the large prism 52 on the eyepiece section 24 side is partially exposed at the upper part in the figure, and a total reflection mirror 42 is provided in this exposed part. ing.

Therefore, by adopting such a configuration, it is possible to obtain the same effects as those of the above embodiment.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4, the joining surfaces of the two triangular prisms 52 and 54 may be aligned at their upper ends. In this case, due to space constraints, the data light beam from the light emitting display element 48 is first converged by the converging lens 50 provided on the smaller triangular prism lens 54 and then reflected by the total reflection mirror 46 onto the film 32 surface. You can guide me.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the triangular prism 54 on the film 32 side is set to be small, but the present invention is not limited to this.
For example, the triangular prism 52 on the eyepiece section 24 side may be set small.

As detailed above, according to the present invention, the beam splitting surface of the beam splitter is composed of a half mirror section and a mirror section, and the half mirror section is provided in the photographing optical path from the main photographing lens, Further, the present invention is characterized in that the mirror portion is provided in the data imprinting optical path.

Therefore, it is possible to provide an endoscope camera that has a simple and compact configuration and is capable of efficiently imprinting data.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the endoscope camera according to an embodiment of the present invention in a connected state; FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing the configuration of the endoscope camera shown in FIG. 1;
3 and 4 are schematic sectional views showing other embodiments, respectively. 12... Endoscope camera, 34... Luminous flux splitter, 36, 38... Prism, 40... Luminous flux splitting surface, 42... Half mirror section (half mirror thin film), 46... Mirror section (total reflection Miller), 48...
...Data imprinting device (data display element).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an endoscope camera in which a light beam splitter for photometry, which is made up of two prisms and a light beam splitting surface is formed between them, and a data imprinting device are disposed inside, the light beam splitter The light beam splitting surface of is composed of a half mirror part and a mirror part, the half mirror part is provided in the photographing optical path from the main photographing lens, the mirror part is provided in the data imprinting optical path, and the data An endoscope camera characterized in that the light beam splitter is provided with a converging lens for imaging.