1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device such as a digital still camera and a digital video camera (hereinafter, a digital camera) each having a function which corrects camera shake in shooting.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an imaging device in which a subject image is received on an imaging element (for example, a CCD) via a shooting lens system (shooting optical system), and a digital image corresponding to the subject image is produced based on image signals from the imaging element, a digital camera having a function which corrects camera shake in shooting, a so-called camera shake correction function, has recently been developed for practical use.
As such a camera shake correction function, for example, a structure has been introduced, which moves an imaging element (for example, a CCD) in a plane (X-Y plane) vertical to an optical axis direction (Z-axis) of the shooting optical system according to the blurring amount of a subject image caused by camera shake. In this conventional digital camera having the conventional camera shake correction function, the imaging element is mounted on a stage provided in one end of a fixing cylinder which houses a lens barrel on the shooting optical axis. This stage uses the shooting optical axis as the Z-axis direction, and is provided to be movable in the X-Y plane vertical to the Z-axis direction. This stage is moved by a magnetic force generated by a permanent magnet and a coil facing that permanent magnet. In this conventional digital camera, an inclination in the Y-axis direction and an inclination in the X-axis direction are detected by using a camera shake detector, and based on this detection output, power distribution current to the coil is changed, and the imaging element is moved to follow the movement of the subject image by the camera shake, so as to correct the camera shake.
In this conventional digital camera, it is preferable to stop applying current to the coil when the camera shake correction is not performed in terms of decreasing power consumption. However, since the stage is movably provided in the one end of the fixing cylinder, if the positional control (hereinafter, electrical holding) of the stage using the magnetic force of the permanent magnet and the coil is stopped, the stage moves in the movable range, and crushing or impact with the end portion of the movable range may be caused.
Consequently, a camera having a camera shake correction function including a locking mechanism which mechanically holds a stage (imaging element) is proposed (for example, JP2007-162889A). In this camera, the power consumption can be controlled, and the crushing and impact caused by the movement of the stage can be prevented.
However, in the above-described camera having a camera shake correction function, it is necessary to mount the locking mechanism and an actuator for driving the locking mechanism. For this reason, the degree of freedom of the layout of the camera shake correction function and the like is decreased and also the entire costs are increased.