1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning tool for a photographic device, and especially to a cleaning tool for removing foreign matter attached to a member of a digital camera which has interchangeable lenses or other devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the number of digital cameras with interchangeable lenses has been increasing. In an interchangeable lens digital camera, foreign matter such as dust which enters into it when the lens is changed, may become attached to a surface of an imaging device inside the digital camera. In such a case, removing the foreign matter from the surface of the imaging device is required to prevent the deterioration of the image quality due to foreign matter. Further, in photographic devices such as a digital camera, cleaning a photographing lens, an eyepiece, a view finder, or so on, is sometimes required.
On the other hand, a cleaning tool that is used for cleaning a precision instrument, an electron device, or so on, and that has an adhesive member used to remove foreign matter from a surface to be cleaned, is already known.
A conventional cleaning tool which uses an adhesive member is not necessarily suited to cleaning a photographic device such as a digital camera. Therefore, such a conventional cleaning tool is not generally suitable for cleaning imaging devices and so on. For example, a widely-used cleaning tool, which has an adhesive member having a circle-shaped front end surface is not suitable for cleaning rectangular surfaces such as a surface of an imaging device or other devices.
On the other hand, in the case when a cleaning tool is made for cleaning an imaging device or so on, cleaning the photographing lens, eyepiece, view finder, or other devices which have a circular shape differing from that of an imaging device, is difficult.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds