Mirror drive apparatus incorporating a brake mechanism of an SLR camera

A mirror drive apparatus incorporating a brake mechanism of an SLR camera, comprising:

• a mirror that is pivoted about a mirror rotational shaft to be swingable between a viewing position at which light traveling from a photographing optical system is incident on said mirror and reflected thereby toward a viewfinder optical system and a retracted position at which the light traveling from said photographing optical system is incident on an image sensor without being reflected by said mirror, wherein said mirror is biased to swing from said viewing position to said retracted position;
• a brake drum which rotates in association with a swing movement of said mirror;
• a mirror brake member including a brake shoe which is brought into contact with and disengaged from said brake drum;
• a mirror control cam which is driven by a motor, said mirror control cam being configured to return said mirror, which is biased to swing from said viewing position to said retracted position, back to said viewing position from said retracted position;
• and
• a brake lever control mechanism which brings said brake shoe into contact with said brake drum and moves said brake shoe off said brake drum by a rotating operation of said mirror control cam,
• wherein said brake lever control mechanism comprises a mirror-drive-spring charge lever which operates to charge a spring, by a rotation of said mirror control cam, to bias said mirror-drive-spring charge lever to a biased position, and
• wherein said mirror-drive-spring charge lever is released from the biased position to move said mirror from said viewing position to said retracted position when said mirror is returned to said viewing position from said retracted position by said rotation of said mirror control cam.