1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens-fitted photographic film package that can take pictures, and also to a method of film reloading therefor. The present invention relates especially to a lens-fitted photographic film package wherein a light-shielding cover is removable from a main body such that the main body is reusable, and to a method of reloading a new photographic film into the lens-fitted photographic film package.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lens-fitted photographic film packages (hereinafter called simply film packages), in which a photographic film is previously loaded and simple exposure mechanisms are incorporated, are now on the market, which are intended to make it possible to take pictures whenever desired without buying or carrying about an expensive and heavy camera. For this purpose, the price of the film package should not be much more than that of a 135-type color photographic film. Therefore, the film packages are so constructed as to simplify the incorporated exposure mechanisms and to make the manufacture thereof inexpensive.
Such film packages consist of a film housing and an outer casing which is decorative and which bears any desired indicia. The film housing consists of a main body provided with exposure mechanism such as a shutter, a taking lens, a film advancing mechanism and so forth, a front cover attached to the front of the main body, and a rear cover attached to the rear of the main body. The rear cover is attached to the main body after a photographic film is loaded in the main body, and thus is used as a light-shielding cover for covering open portions of the main body, for example, the rear and bottom sides thereof, in a light-tight fashion. Since it has conventionally been sought merely to minimize the cost of the film package, and the film package was not intended to be used repeatedly, the rear cover of the conventional film package could not be repeatedly opened and closed. Instead, the rear cover was tightly attached to the main body, for example, by the engagement of claws in holes.
In such known film packages, the exposed film need not be rewound nor be removed from the film housing, and the film package containing the exposed film is forwarded to a photofinishing laboratory for development. In the photofinishing laboratory, a part of the rear cover is opened to take out a film cassette containing the exposed film so as to permit development and printing of the exposed film. The film housings have conventionally been thrown away after the removal of film cassette, and only the developed films and the photographic prints are returned to the customer.
The main body and the front and rear covers of such film packages are made from synthetic resin materials, so that a large amount of synthetic resin waste is generated by the photofinishing laboratories. This is undesirable from a standpoint of environmental protection. Because it is a pressing necessity to reduce such industrial waste, recovery of the waste materials and recycling of the reusable parts of the film package are desirable. Especially the main body, because it includes the exposure mechanism such as the shutter, the taking lens and so forth, is worth reusing, compared to the front and rear covers, which are each formed as one piece and which can be discarded with relatively little loss.
In order to reuse the main body, it is necessary to remove the rear cover from the main body so as to reload a new film. Although it is possible to remove the rear cover from the main body by pushing a tool such as a screwdriver into the gap between the hole and the claw so as forcibly to release the tight engagement of the rear cover with the main body, this may damage the main body and, therefore, would not be reliable as a method for reusing the main body.