...When G.G. Hubbard learned of his future son-in-law's invention, he called it "only a toy." His daughter was engaged to a young man named Alexander Graham Bell.
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8019214 | Camera accessory coupling apparatus A camera accessory coupling apparatus capable of easily and quickly coupling a camera body to a camera accessory is provided. The camera accessory coupling apparatus includes a holder selectively detachable from the camera body; a locking pin, disposed in the holder... | 09/13/2011 |
| 7978971 | Collapsible softbox for photography lighting A collapsible softbox for use with a photographic flash. The softbox includes a collapsible body made of connected, moveable first and second side panels. The body includes a distal opening and a proximal opening. The softbox also includes a front panel which is det... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7885533 | External photographic wireless communication device An external photographic wireless communication device for connection to a camera body having a hot shoe connector for connecting to the camera body and a hot shoe connector for connecting to one or more accessory devices. Each of the hot shoe connectors includes a ... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7783188 | System and method for maintaining hot shoe communications between a camera and a wireless device A system and method for serially communicating actual flash data related to a remote lighting device to a camera body via a hot shoe connector. In one example, a wireless communication device connected to the hot shoe connector of the camera body receives a request ... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7486885 | Illumination apparatus and photographing apparatus having the same An illumination apparatus applies uniform light beams having a fixed angle distribution as illumination light to obtain illumination having a uniform light distribution. The illumination apparatus includes a light source and an optical member having an incidence sur... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7424216 | Camera flash diffuser for macro photography A light diffuser for a camera used in macro photography, the diffuser formed from a prism having a body that includes an opening to accommodate the camera lens such that the body is positioned adjacent the camera flash unit for receiving and redirecting light throug... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7281693 | Ball head assembly with anti-escape mechanism for a tripod A ball head assembly has a holding base, a clamping collar, a ball, a holder and an anti-escape mechanism. The anti-escape mechanism is mounted on the holding base, is connected to the ball and has a supporting rod, a supporting block, a dragging member and a nut. T... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7268721 | Car reversing radar sensor having fine-tuning feature A car reversing radar sensor having a fine-tuning function includes a cylinder, a sensor module, a front cover, a packing block and a back cover. The sensor module is fitted in the cylinder and a sensing angle thereof can be adjusted. The packing block includes a pu... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7257322 | Photographic strobe diffuser A strobe diffuser attachment for a camera, includes a diffuser body adapted for attachment to a camera, a pair of spaced diffuser lenses mounted in the diffuser body and adapted to be located in front of a range of different integral strobe locations for a camera at... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7224501 | Light-emitting device and apparatus having the same A light-emitting device is disclosed which allows efficient irradiation of light from a plurality of light sources to achieve a predetermined light emission characteristic and has a small size. The light-emitting device has an optical member which includes a first r... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7184658 | Automatic flash switching rotational strobe frame In the realm of professional photography, and those amateur wanting professional results, when photographing people, the illumination devices must be located directly above and on the centerline of the camera lens. This is the desired effect as not to have shadows b... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7127163 | Ring light guide A ring illuminator (20) has a light channeling section (22) with an input face (24) optically coupling the light channeling section (22) to a flash unit (16) of a camera (12) for obtaining flash illumination therefrom. A rin... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7097195 | Recreational binding with adjustable suspension interface A binding system is provided that is effective for use on recreational device, such as a snowboard, and that is adapted to mate to, or that includes, a boot or other footwear worn by the user. In general, the binding system includes a base plate for support a rider'... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7082263 | Lens-fitted photo film unit, flash device, and lens-fitted photo film system A flash device for a lens-fitted photo film unit pre-loaded with unexposed photo film is provided. A main capacitor stores charge. A flash emitter emits flash light. A flash circuit board charges the main capacitor, and drives the flash emitter by discharging the ma... | 07/25/2006 |
| 7064520 | Electrical connection arrangement for hand-held tools with auxiliary devices An electrical connection arrangement (10) for a battery pack-powered electrical hand-hand tool (2) has an adapter (16) which can be arranged at an electric hand-held tool (2) and which, for the electrical connection of the electric hand-h... | 06/20/2006 |
| 6718136 | Flexible flashlight extension A removable flexible extension to space apart a flashlight head and body of a commercially available flashlight, thereby adding a deformable flashlight extension that can be shaped to a desired configuration. ... | 04/06/2004 |
| 6442346 | Flash apparatus with one-time-use camera A one-time-use camera with a built-in flash, an external flash unit therefor and system in which the camera and external flash unit have mating mounting structures enabling the external flash unit to be mounted on the camera in manner that blocks direct f... | 08/27/2002 |
| 6351608 | One-time-use camera with external flash unit A one-time-use camera with a built-in flash unit and an external flash unit system in which the external flash unit is devoid of a charger circuit and battery power supply. The external flash unit is connected to the camera built-in flash unit's flash cap... | 02/26/2002 |
| 6175695 | Manually operable flashlight unit A manually operable flashlight unit (10) having a foot part (11) fitting a finder shoe (6) on a camera (1), standard contacts (9') for chassis ground and (8') for flash release being arranged in the foot part (11), has the additional feature that a single... | 01/16/2001 |
| 6058271 | Illumination device An illumination device for photography includes a guide part arranged to guide, through the inside of a dense member, a light emitted from a flash light emitting part disposed in a camera body and to cause the light to exit from a position located away fr... | 05/02/2000 |
| 5974273 | Method and apparatus for controlling a remote light source A method and apparatus for activating a remote light source in synchronization with an indication provided from a camera. A transducer is coupled to the external electrical connector of a conventional camera in order to convert the electrical signals that... | 10/26/1999 |
| 5848306 | Automatic strobe photographing system Disclosed is an automatic strobe photographing system in which a camera body having an at least a Q contact, a lens provided with a lens shutter mechanism, and an X contact, a strobe device having an X terminal and Q terminal are provided. The strobe devi... | 12/08/1998 |
| 5678075 | Camera accessory for controlling an external strobe An easy to use camera accessory, when mounted onto a camera, will trigger an external strobe upon excitation of a built-in electronic flash while simultaneously blocking from the scene the light emitted by the built-in electronic flash. The camera accesso... | 10/14/1997 |
| 5630183 | Camera accessory mounting and fixing device A camera accessory mounting and fixing device, having an outer periphery of a mounting foot member to be inserted into an accessory shoe of a camera to which a camera accessory is fixed. The camera accessory mounting and fixing device has a clamping membe... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5614970 | Flash lighting apparatus and a camera equipped with the flash lighting apparatus A flash lighting apparatus is capable of controlling the orientational distribution at the time of flashing in accordance with the spatially distributional state of subjects. The flash lighting apparatus comprises a light emission portion, and a light amo... | 03/25/1997 |
| 5565941 | Hot shoe system for camera A pop-up internal strobe unit of a camera is enabled when a hot shoe cover is inserted into a hot shoe, or if the hot shoe is empty, and is disabled when an external strobe is mounted in the hot shoe. The enabling and disabling of the pop-up internal stro... | 10/15/1996 |
| 5281990 | Battery pack adapter for video cameras A battery pack adaptor can be attached to any one of a number of brands of video cameras and can have any one of a number of brands of battery packs attached to it, so that any one of the cameras can be operated by any one of the battery packs interchange... | 01/25/1994 |
| 5250970 | Electronic flashing apparatus and camera system An electronic flashing apparatus is provided with an adapter attachment detecting means for detecting the attachment of wide adapter, teleadapter, or the like, and a zoom position determining means for determining a zooming position on the basis of the de... | 10/05/1993 |
| 5222670 | Battery pack adapter An adapter is disclosed to enable battery packs constructed for unique attachment to different kinds of video cameras to be attached interchangeably to the respective cameras. The adapter has a front seating surface which attaches to the seating surface o... | 06/29/1993 |
| 5220369 | Battery coupler A battery coupler for use in VTR integral with a camera. The battery coupler can be mounted to the VTR integral with a camera, allows a battery to be connected thereto, and includes a shoe for mounting accessories. Therefore, if the battery coupler is mou... | 06/15/1993 |
| 5121147 | Video camera carrying handle supporting battery and accessories In order to provide a compact carrying handle arrangement for a video camera which is not provided with carrying handle connections per se, the lower horizontally extending portion of an essentially C-shaped handle extends along the lower edge of the came... | 06/09/1992 |
| 5095408 | Video camera illuminating adapter A video camera illuminating device adapter incorporated with a video camera having a main body attachable on one side to a video camera and an illuminating device respectively and batteries attached to the opposite side. A simple circuit in the main body ... | 03/10/1992 |
| 5095325 | Flash adaptor for adjusting the position of a flash relative to a camera while maintaining the flash in a constant angular orientation The present invention provides a flash adaptor for use with a camera. The flash adaptor comprises a camera support attachable to the camera with a flash support mounted on the camera support and moveable between first and second positions. A flash recepta... | 03/10/1992 |
| 5075706 | Accessory shoe adapter for video camera An accessory shoe adapter is provided for video cameras having a battery pack mount with a pair of contacts adapted to receive a battery pack to power the camera. The adapter comprises an adapter body having a front and a rear and includes a shoe portion ... | 12/24/1991 |
| 5068683 | Accessory shoe adapter for video camera attached on battery mount portion A video camera accessory shoe adapter includes an accessory shoe extending from an adapter body having on its opposite sides a camera mounting portion and a battery mounting portion. The camera mounting portion of the adapter is formed to be mounted on th... | 11/26/1991 |
| 5063403 | Electronic flash apparatus for camera An electronic flash apparatus is capable of discriminating the presence or absence of connection to a camera, and also the state of a connected camera. When the flash apparatus is connected to a camera capable of information transfer, the time required to... | 11/05/1991 |
| 4961083 | Electronic flash device for a camera and accessory shoe for mounting an electronic flash device on a camera An accessory shoe for mounting an electronic flash device on a camera, which is provided at a top portion of the camera and has a plurality of terminals for circuitry of the camera arrayed in a direction in which the electronic flash device is inserted in... | 10/02/1990 |
| 4924246 | Energizing system for video cameras and lights using adapter modules Adapter modules are provided for use with different types of video cameras and associated battery packs to energize the cameras and also light units from the battery packs. Each module includes interconnection means for mating with those of the cameras an... | 05/08/1990 |
| 4740804 | Multi-adjustable base attachment for flash units An apparatus is interposed between a typical camera hot shoe mount and a flash unit to permit multi-position adjustment of the flash relative the camera, without requiring modification to either of same. A base unit defines a generally spherical cavity in... | 04/26/1988 |
| 4704023 | Camera to flash adapter A system and method for adapting a multi-purpose electronic flash for use with an automatic exposure control camera is disclosed. The system responds to a ready signal from the multi-purpose flash and a reference signal from the automatic exposure control... | 11/03/1987 |