TODAY’S PATENT- OBJECT DISTANCE MEASURING DEVICE IN CAMERA

The invention is a device in a camera that measures the distance of the object invented by Makoto Mogamiya and Nobuharu Suzuki on 11^th of April, 1995, bearing the patent number USRE34900E.

The present invention relates to a measuring device for measuring a distance of an object to be photographed from a camera with which it is being photographed. More precisely, it relates to an object distance measuring device in a camera having an active autofocusing system with an infrared LED which emits light for measuring the distance of the object to be photographed.

In a camera having an active autofocusing system with an infrared LED, an infrared light for measuring distance is emitted toward the object from the infrared LED provided in the camera body. This measuring light is then reflected by the object and received by a light receiver on the camera body, which detects the object distance in accordance with the measuring light. Based on the object distance thus obtained, a focusing lens of a photographing lens of the camera is moved to a focus position.

The primary object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawback of the prior art as mentioned above by providing an object distance measuring device of a camera in which the object distance of a designated object in the field of view of the finder, can be measured without moving the camera.