JPH10108052A - Electronic video photographing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To use a small-sized and easily designable AC adapter and to improve handling ability by making the operation of a flash light-emitting device impossible when the AC adapter is selected. SOLUTION: As a power supply means, a dry cell 8 which is a primary battery, a charging battery 9 which is a chargeable secondary battery and the AC adapter 10 for supplying power from an electric lamp line are usable. When using the AC adapter 10 for supplying the power from the electric lamp line, it is mechanically detected that a plug 10a has been is inserted into a connector 15, and as a result, a changeover switch 12 is switched to an input terminal 12b and the use of the AC adapter 10 is given with priority. Further, when it is mechanically detected that the plug 10a of the AC adapter 10 has been inserted by the connector 15, a control circuit 14 controls a power source circuit 13, stops power supply to a strobe 16 which is the flash light-emitting device and inhibits the used of the strobe 16 by the operation of an operation panel 17 provided, so as to perform respective kinds of operations of an electronic still camera.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic image photographing device such as an electronic still camera, and more particularly to an electronic image photographing device having a flash light emitting device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic still camera, which is an electronic image photographing apparatus, includes a flash light emitting device, for example, a strobe to enable photographing of an object in a dark place, and a photographed image signal is recorded on a magnetic disk or a semiconductor memory. The power supply means for supplying the power is generally a primary or secondary battery such as a dry battery or a rechargeable battery,
An AC adapter for supplying power from a power line is selectively used. The electronic still camera is configured so that all its functions can operate regardless of which power supply means is used.

[0003]

However, since a large amount of power is required to operate the flash light emitting device,
An AC adapter used in an electronic still camera has been increased in size and complicated in design in order to cope with the great power.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic image photographing apparatus which can use a small-sized and easily designed AC adapter without deteriorating the usability.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic image photographing apparatus having a flash light emitting device, comprising a plurality of power supply means including an AC adapter for supplying power from a power line. Power supply selecting means for selectively supplying power to the main body, and flash light emission control means for disabling the operation of the flash light emitting device when the AC adapter is selected in the power supply selection means.

The plurality of power supply means include a primary battery and / or a secondary battery.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an electronic still camera according to an embodiment of the present invention. Optical lens 1
Light from a subject (not shown) passing through the optical lens 1
And forms an image on the image plane of the image sensor 2 and is converted into an electric signal for one screen. The electric signal is converted into a digital image signal by the signal processing circuit 3, and is stored in the image memory 5 by the writing circuit 4. The image memory 5 can store digital image signals of a plurality of screens. The digital image signals are read by a read circuit 6 and output from an output terminal 7 to a personal computer (not shown) for display, processing and storage. Done.

As power supply means for supplying power when using the electronic still camera, power is supplied from a dry battery 8 as a primary battery, a rechargeable battery 9 as a rechargeable secondary battery, and a power line. AC adapter 10
Can be used. The dry battery 8 or the rechargeable battery 9 is connected to the terminal 11 and supplies power to the power supply circuit 13 via the input terminal 12a of the changeover switch 12. The difference between the voltage supplied to the power supply circuit 13 (for example, 1.5 V × 6 batteries = 9.0 V for the dry battery 8 and 6. 0V) is detected by the control circuit 14, and according to the result, the control circuit 14
Is controlled so that the output of a DC / DC converter (not shown) built in the controller is constant in any case.

On the other hand, when using the AC adapter 10 for supplying power from a power line, the plug 10 a is inserted into the connector 15. The connector 15 mechanically detects that the plug 10a has been inserted, and as a result, the changeover switch 12 switches to the input terminal 12b.
Power is supplied to the power supply circuit 13 via 2b. That is, even if the dry battery 8 or the rechargeable battery 9 is connected to the terminal 11, the use of the AC adapter 10 is prioritized.

When the connector 15 mechanically detects that the plug 10a of the AC adapter 10 has been inserted, the control circuit 14 controls the power supply circuit 13 to supply power to the strobe 16 as a flash light emitting device. The supply is stopped and the use of the strobe 16 by operating the operation panel 17 provided for performing various operations of the electronic still camera is prohibited. The control circuit 14 controls each part of the electronic still camera in accordance with the operation of the operation panel 17 in addition to the control of the power supply circuit 13 and the strobe 16.

The flash 16 includes a charging circuit 16a, a charging detection circuit 16b, and a light emission control circuit 16c. The charging circuit 16a charges the current from the power supply circuit 13, and is controlled by the control circuit 14 based on information indicating the state of charge detected by the charge detection circuit 16b. The light emission control circuit 16c controls discharge from the charging circuit 16a based on a light emission start signal and a light emission stop signal from the control circuit 14, and starts and stops light emission according to the state of the subject.

In this embodiment, whether or not the AC adapter 10 is used is determined by mechanically detecting that the plug 10a of the AC adapter 10 has been inserted into the connector 15. The control circuit 14 determines the difference between the supplied voltage and that of the dry battery 8 or the rechargeable battery 9.
May be performed by detecting the error.

As described above, in the electronic still camera according to the present invention, when power is supplied by the AC adapter,
Strobes that consume large amounts of power become inoperable. Thus, the AC adapter does not need to consider the charging operation of the strobe, and can be made smaller than the conventional one.

More specifically, in the case of an electronic still camera having a maximum rating of 6 V / 1 A in normal operation without using a flash, the maximum rating is 6 V / 2 A in consideration of the charging operation of the flash.

If the maximum rated current is changed from 2 A to 1 A by disabling the strobe, if the transformer is of the transformer winding type, the AC adapter, which is the main factor for determining the shape, is a core core. Volume (about 7 cubic centimeters) is about one half. In the case of a switching power supply type, the volume (about 3 cubic centimeters) of the iron core, which is a main factor determining the shape, is reduced to about 1/2, and a low-rated circuit element for controlling the power supply is used. Things can be used. Therefore, compared to the case where a high-rated circuit element is used, low cost and easy design are achieved.

When an electronic image photographing apparatus such as an electronic still camera is used by using an AC adapter, a stored image signal is output to a personal computer for display, processing, and accumulation instead of photographing. In most cases, even if a flash light emitting device such as a strobe does not operate, the usability does not deteriorate.

[0017]

According to the present invention, when using an AC adapter, a flash light emitting device cannot be used.
Despite the limitation that shooting in dark places is not possible, most of the time, the stored image signal is output to a personal computer for display, processing, and storage. It is possible to provide an electronic image photographing apparatus which can use a small and easy-to-design AC adapter, and the effect is great.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 8 dry battery (power supply means) 9 rechargeable battery (power supply means) 10 AC adapter (power supply means) 12 changeover switch (power supply selection means) 13 power supply circuit 14 control circuit (flash light emission control means) 15 connector (power supply selection means) 16 Strobe (flash device) 16a Charging circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic image photographing apparatus having a flash light emitting device, wherein a plurality of power supply means including an AC adapter for supplying power from a power line is selected to supply power to the main body by using a plurality of power supply means. An electronic image photographing apparatus comprising: a flash light emission control unit that disables operation of the flash light emission device when the AC adapter is selected by the power supply selection unit. 2. The electronic image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of power supply units include a primary battery and / or a secondary battery.