Camera for taking hemispherical motion picture

Claim 2

A camera for taking a hemispherical motion picture comprising a center rotary shaft adapted to be driven by a motor for synchronized rotation and carrying a main bevel gear secured thereto, a plurality of cinecamera units arranged radially around said rotary shaft and each provided with a wide-angle taking lens, each of said cinecamera units being adapted to cover within its picture angle each segment of an overall view around and above said camera, a torque delivery shaft extending from each of said cinecamera units toward said center rotary shaft and fixedly carrying thereon a driven bevel gear in meshing engagement with said main bevel gear whereby rotation of the rotary shaft causes rotation of each of the torque delivery shafts and each cinecamera unit is operated simultaneously, a frame transport motor detachably mounted on each of said cinecamera units for driving a drive shaft of a single-frame exposure mechanism, and a film take-up motor detachably mounted on each of said cinecamera units for driving a take-up spool of a film magazine, the motors on each cinecamera unit being adapted for intermittent and synchronized operation by means of a timer in response to pulses from a pulse generator.

Claim 3

A camera for taking a hemispherical motion picture comprising a center rotary shaft adapted to be driven by a motor for synchronized rotation and carrying a main Bevel gear secured thereto, a plurality of cinecamera units arranged radially around said rotary shaft and each provided with a wide-angle taking lens, each of said cinecamera units being adapted to cover within its picture angle each segment of an overall view around and above said camera, a torque delivery shaft extending from each of said cinecamera units toward said center rotary shaft and fixedly carrying thereon a driven bevel gear in meshing engagement with said main bevel gear whereby rotation of the rotary shaft causes rotation of each of the torque delivery shafts and each cinecamera unit is operated simultaneously, a viewfinder mounted on the side face of each of said cinecamera units, each viewfinder extending outwardly from the associated cinecamera unit and including a plurality of lenses positioned in the path of light rays passing through the wide angle lens of the associated cinecamera unit whereby the operator can view an erect image in the same state as the subject to be photographed and a reflecting mirror in the path of said light rays movably mounted in front of an image forming plane for the wide angle lens whereby the mirror can be moved during photographing to permit said light rays to pass to the image forming plane.

Claim 4

A camera for taking a hemispherical motion picture comprising a center rotary shaft adapted to be driven by a motor for synchronized rotation and carrying a main Bevel gear secured thereto, a plurality of cinecamera units arranged radially around said rotary shaft and each provided with a wide-angle taking lens, each of said cinecamera units being adapted to cover within its picture angle each segment of an overall view around and above said camera, a torque delivery shaft extending from each of said cinecamera units toward said center rotary shaft and fixedly carrying thereon a driven bevel gear in meshing engagement with said main bevel gear whereby rotation of the rotary shaft causes rotation of each of the torque delivery shafts and each cinecamera unit is operated simultaneously, a viewfinder mounted on the side face of each of said cinecamera units, each viewfinder extending outwardly from the associated cinecamera unit and including a plurality of lenses positioned in the path of light rays passing through the wide angle lens of the associated cinecamera unit whereby the operator can view an erect image in the same state as the subject to be photographed and a reflecting mirror in the path of said light rays movably mounted in front of an image forming plane for the wide angle lens whereby the mirror can be moved during photographing to permit said light rays to pass to the image forming plane.

Claim 5

The camera of claim 2 in which the optical axis of each of said wide-angle taking lenses is positioned obliquely upwardly of the horizontal.

Claim 6

A camera for taking a hemispherical motion picture comprising a center rotary shaft adapted to be driven by a motor for snychronized rotation and carrying a main bevel gear secured thereto, a plurality of cinecamera units arranged radially around said rotary shaft and each provided with a wide-angle taking lens, each of said cinecamera units being adapted to cover within its picture angle each segment of an overall view around and above said camera, a torque delivery shaft extending from each of said cinecamera units toward said center rotary shaft and fixedly carrying thereon a driven bevel gear in meshing engagement with said main bevel gear whereby rotation of the rotary shaft causes rotation of each of the torque delivery shafts and each cinecamera unit is operated simultaneously, each wide-angle taking lens including a focusless optical system and an image forming optical system which are disposed at a right angle with each other, and a reflecting mirror interposed therebetween, the film plane for each wide-angle taking lens being positioned below the image forming optical system for the lens.

Claim 7

A camera for taking a hemispherical motion picture comprising a center rotary shaft adapted to be driven by a motor for snychronized rotation and carrying a main bevel gear secured thereto, a plurality of cinecamera units arranged radially around said rotary shaft and each provided with a wide-angle taking lens, each of said cinecamera units being adapted to cover within its picture angle each segment of an overall view around and above said camera, a torque delivery shaft extending from each of said cinecamera units toward said center rotary shaft and fixedly carrying thereon a driven bevel gear in meshing engagement with said main bevel gear whereby rotation of the rotary shaft causes rotation of each of the torque delivery shafts and each cinecamera unit is operated simultaneously, each wide-angle taking lens including a focusless optical system and an image forming optical system which are disposed at a right angle with each other, and a reflecting mirror interposed therebetween, the film plane for each wide-angle taking lens being positioned below the image forming optical system for the lens.

Claim 8

The camera of claim 4 in which the optical axis of each of said wide-angle taking lenses is positioned obliquely upwardly of the horizontal.