JPH11258687A - Camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve handleability in the case of using a camera for the purpose other than photographing and to prevent the waste of film in such a case by setting a mode for performing only image pickup by an image pickup means without performing exposing operation by a photographing means is accordance with release operation. SOLUTION: A mode selection member 3 is provided to freely slide up and down on the back surface part 2 of a camera body 1. When the member 3 is set to an index 'EXP' side, an 'exposure mode' as a 1st mode is selected. When it is set to an index 'MEMO' side, a 'memorandum mode' as a 2nd mode is selected. In the 'memorandum mode', only operation of storing a digital image in a 2nd image memory as a 2nd storage means is performed without performing the exposing operation in accordance with the operation of a release button 4. When a 'memory mode' is selected, the image data stored in the storage means is rewritten on new image data in order from old image data when the number of the data reaches a given value.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera capable of receiving a subject image by an image sensor and displaying the image on a monitor device such as an electronic viewfinder.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to be able to confirm what kind of photograph was taken after the photographing, a digital image substantially equivalent to the image is monitored in synchronization with exposure of a subject image to a silver halide film. Various cameras to be displayed on the device have been proposed.

[0003]

However, the cameras proposed so far output a digital image in synchronism with exposing a subject image to a film. However, there is a problem in that the film must be exposed for one frame even if it is used differently from the original usage of checking after photographing, such as using a simple presentation tool. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has as its object to use a silver halide camera capable of receiving a subject image with an image sensor and displaying this image on a monitor device, except for a shooting purpose. Another object of the present invention is to provide a camera that improves the usability in the case where the camera is used, and prevents the film from being wasted.

[0004]

In a camera according to a first aspect of the present invention, a photographing means for performing an exposure operation for exposing a subject image to a silver halide film is substantially equivalent to the subject image exposed to the silver halide film. A first mode in which the image capturing means performs an exposure operation in accordance with a release operation, and performs image capturing in accordance with the release operation in synchronization with the exposure operation. Mode setting means for setting any one of a second mode in which only imaging by the imaging means is performed without performing an exposure operation by means, and image data for storing image data relating to a subject image captured by the imaging means Storage means;
When the second mode is selected, a storage number limiting unit that limits the number of image data stored in the image data storage unit. Further, in the camera according to claim 2 of the present invention, in the camera according to claim 1, when the second mode is selected, the number of image data stored in the image data storage means is When the predetermined value is reached, the image data is rewritten with new image data in order from the oldest image data. Further, in the camera according to claim 3 of the present invention, an image pickup means for picking up a subject image with an image pickup element in response to a release operation and outputting image data, and an image storing the image data output from the image pickup means A data storage unit, a first mode that does not limit the number of image data stored in the image data storage unit, and a first mode in which the number of image data stored in the image data storage unit is limited. Setting means for setting any of the second modes for sequentially rewriting image data with new image data.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, an outline of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, a mode selection member 3 is slidably provided up and down on a rear portion 2 of a camera body 1 and is referred to as an index “EXP”.
When set to the side, "exposure mode" is selected as the first mode, and when set to the index "MEMO" side, "memo mode" is selected as the second mode. The "exposure mode" means that an exposure operation on a silver halide film (not shown) is performed in response to a manual operation of pressing the release button 4, and the subject image exposed on the silver halide film in synchronization with this exposure is substantially changed. In this mode, an equivalent digital image is stored in a first image memory serving as a first storage unit. On the other hand, the “memo mode” is a mode in which only the operation of storing the digital image in the second image memory as the second storage means without performing the exposure operation in response to the operation of the release button 4. . Also, a monitor device 5 having a display screen 5a made of liquid crystal and having a function as an electronic viewfinder is provided on the rear portion 2, and the mode selection member 3 is provided.
The image stored in the first and second image memories can be selectively displayed by operating the display up button 6 or the display down button 7 disposed on the upper surface of the camera body 1.

Next, the display operation of the display screen of the monitor device 5 will be described with reference to FIG. Now mode selection member 3
Is set to the “EXP” side and “exposure mode” is selected, the latest image (a) is displayed on the display screen 5a. This image (a) is the latest image stored in the first image memory described above, and is substantially equivalent to the subject image exposed on the latest photographing frame on the silver halide film. When the display down button 7 is pressed in this state, the previously stored image, ie, the image (b) of the previous exposure operation, is displayed, and when pressed again, the image stored two times before, ie, the image of the previous exposure operation, is displayed. (C) is displayed. All of these are substantially equivalent to the subject images exposed to the corresponding frames on the silver halide film. Next, when the display up button 6 is pressed, the image (b) is displayed again, and when it is pressed again, the image (a) is displayed again. In other words, when the "exposure mode" is selected, by pressing the display up button 6 or the display down button 7, the subject image previously exposed to the silver halide film can be confirmed on the display screen 5a. .

On the other hand, when the mode setting member 3 is set to the "MEMO" side and "memo mode" is selected, the latest memo image (d) is displayed on the display screen 5a of FIG. This image is irrelevant to the subject image exposed on the silver halide film, and is stored in a second image memory as a second storage device different from the first image memory used in the “exposure mode”. It is an image. Then, in order to display the previously stored images (e) and (f), the display is pressed by pressing the display up button 6 or the display down button 7 in the same manner as in the case of the “exposure mode”. I have. If the selected mode is "exposure mode", the display screen 5a
The character "EXP" is superimposed on the upper right of the display screen 5a, and the character "MEMO" is superimposed on the upper right of the display screen 5a in the "memo mode". Thus, it is possible to recognize at a glance which mode the currently displayed image is stored in.

Next, the details of the camera shown in the above embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. The camera 1 has a photographing optical system and a finder optical system which are separate from each other, and includes a photographing device 100 and a finder device 200. The photographing apparatus 100 includes a control circuit 101 as control means for controlling an operation sequence of the camera, and various mechanisms that operate in response to a control signal from the control circuit 101. Among these mechanisms, the film feeding mechanism 106 drives the silver halide film 105. The shutter control mechanism 104 controls the sector shutter 103 during the exposure operation. Further, the focus of the photographing optical system 102 is manually adjusted and does not depend on the control circuit 101, but it is needless to say that the photographing optical system 102 may be configured as a known automatic focusing device. Further, various switches are connected to the control circuit 101. Here, the switch 107 is a switch (hereinafter, referred to as a mode switch 107) interlocked with the above-mentioned mode selection member 3, and the mode switch 107
The control circuit 101 is configured so that the exposure mode is set at N. The switches 108 and 109 are switches (hereinafter referred to as the up switch 108 and the down switch 109) that are interlocked with the pressing of the display up button 6 and the display down button 7, respectively. The switch 110 is a switch (hereinafter, referred to as a release switch 110) interlocked with the pressing of the release button 4.

On the other hand, the finder device 200 includes an objective lens 201 and an eyepiece lens 20 as an object observation optical system.
2 are provided. Then, these lenses 201, 2
A half mirror 203 is disposed between the light-emitting elements 02 and reflects part of the finder light beam downward in the figure. The reflected luminous flux is converted by an imaging lens 204 into an image sensor 205 such as a CCD.
Is imaged on a sensor portion (not shown) of the image sensor. Image sensor 205
, Photoelectrically converts the image and sends the image to an image processing circuit 111 as image processing means arranged in the photographing apparatus 100. The image processing circuit 111 converts the image signal from the image sensor 205 into A
A / D conversion is performed to convert the digital image into a digital image, and the digital image is displayed on the monitor device 5. When the above “exposure mode” is set, the digital image is stored in the first image memory 113, and when the “memo mode” is set, the second image is stored. Image memory 114
To memorize. Further, according to the operation of the up switch 108 and the down switch 109, the images stored in the first image memory and the second image memory are stored in the monitor device 5 as described above.
Display with. The operations of these circuits are all controlled by the control circuit 1.
Responds to the control signal from 01.

Next, an operation sequence of the camera will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. FIG.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a main routine of the camera. In this flowchart, for simplification, only the operation after the loading of the film cartridge will be described. First, at S1, the open / closed state of the back cover is detected. If it is determined that the camera is closed with the film cartridge loaded, the film information such as the film sensitivity and the number of shots is read from the information recording portion provided on the film cartridge (not shown) in S2. Next, at S3 <
The idle feed> subroutine is executed to idle-feed the film 105 to the first frame as is known. Thereafter, 0 is entered in the frame number counter in S4. This frame number counter is a counter for storing the number of frames photographed in the “exposure mode”. Subsequently, in S5, 0 is set in the memo counter. This memo counter counts the number of images stored in the “memo mode”. Then, 0 is set in the display counters 1 and 2 in S6. The display counters 1 and 2 operate in an "exposure mode" and a "memo mode", respectively.
Is a counter for specifying an image to be displayed when the above-described image display is performed. This is the preparation stage for the exposure operation or the memo operation.

Subsequently, in S7, it is determined whether or not the exposure mode is set. This is because the above-mentioned mode selection member 3 has “EX
It is set to the P "side, and it is determined whether or not the mode switch 107 is ON. Here, if the mode switch 107 is ON, it is the" exposure mode ".
Next, it is determined in S8 whether or not the release has been performed. This is to determine whether or not the release switch 110 linked to the release button 4 is ON. Here, if the release switch 110 is not turned on,
At S9, a subroutine of <monitor display 1> is executed.
This subroutine is a routine for displaying the digital image stored in the first image memory on the monitor device 5, which will be described later in detail. When the <monitor display 1> subroutine is completed, the flow returns to S7 again, and this operation is repeated until the release switch 110 is turned ON.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S8 that the release switch 110 is ON, an exposure operation is performed in an <exposure> subroutine in S10. This exposure operation is a known operation for opening and closing the sector shutter 103 and exposing the subject image on the silver halide film, and the details are omitted. When the exposure operation is completed, the control circuit 101 sends an image capture instruction signal to the image processing circuit 111 in S11.
Upon receiving this signal, the image processing circuit 111
The analog image data from step 5 is converted into digital image data and taken in. Next, the contents of the current frame number counter are transferred to the image processing circuit 111 as address information when the digital image data is stored in the first image memory 113 in S12. Then, in S13, a photographed image storage instruction signal is sent to the image processing circuit 111. The image processing circuit 111 determines the address of the first image memory 113 in which the digital image data is to be stored from the value of the transferred frame number counter,
The digital image data is stored in order from the address according to the captured image storage instruction signal. Therefore, the image data stored in the first image memory 113 is stored in association with the photographed frame. As described above, since the digital image data storage operation is performed in synchronization with the exposure operation on the silver halide film 105, the image optically recorded on the silver halide film 105 and the image stored in the first image memory 113 are stored. Are almost equivalent.

Next, in S14, it is determined whether or not the current frame is the last frame. In this method, the number of shots read from the information recording portion provided on the film cartridge is compared with the content of the current frame number counter, and if they match, it is determined that the last frame has been exposed. Is what you do. Here, if it is determined that it is not the last frame, S1
Proceed to 5 to execute the <one frame winding up> subroutine. When this is completed, 1 is added to the frame number counter in S16. Next, the contents of the frame number counter are put into the display counter 1 in S17, and the process returns to S7. On the other hand, if it is determined in S14 that the frame is the last frame, a <rewind> subroutine is executed in S18. When the rewind operation is completed, the open / close state of the back cover is checked in S19.
At 0, all the image data in the first image memory 113 and the second image memory 114 are erased, and then, at S21, 0 is entered into the frame number counter. After that, the apparatus is in a pause state until a new film cartridge is loaded. S
Returning to step 7, if the mode switch 107 is OFF, it is the "memo mode", so it is determined in S22 whether the release switch 110 is ON.

If the release switch 110 has not been turned on, a subroutine of <monitor display 2> is executed in S23. This routine is a routine for displaying the digital image stored in the above-mentioned second image memory on the monitor device 5, and will be described later in detail. When the <monitor display 2> routine ends, the process returns to S7 again, and repeats this until the release switch 110 is turned ON. On the other hand, if it is determined in S22 that the release switch 110 is ON, an image capture instruction signal is sent to the image processing unit 111 in S24. Upon receiving this signal, the image processing unit 111 converts the analog image data from the image sensor 205 into digital image data and takes it in. Next, in step S25, the current contents of the memo counter are transferred to the image processing unit 111 as address information when the digital image data is stored in the second image memory 114. Then, in S25, a memo image storage instruction signal is sent to the image processing unit. Image processing unit 11
1 determines the address of the second image memory 114 in which the digital image data is to be stored from the value of the transferred memo counter, and stores the digital image data in order from the address according to the memo image storage instruction signal.

Next, the value of the memo counter is checked in S26. At this time, if the value of the memo counter is not 5, 1 is added to the memo counter in S29. On the other hand, if the value of the memo counter is 5, 1 is added to the memo counter in S27.
Insert Therefore, the images stored in the second image memory 114 are rewritten in chronological order when the number of stored images becomes six or more. This is because the image to be stored as a memo is temporary, so that it is sufficient to store about 5 images in consideration of the capacity of the image memory. Of course, the number of stored images may be increased to 10 or 20 or the number of stored images may not be limited. Finally, the contents of the memo counter are put into the display counter 2 in S28, and the process returns to S7.

FIG. 5 shows a routine of the above-mentioned <monitor display 1>. First, in S31, it is checked whether or not the content of the frame number counter is 0. If the content of the frame number counter is 0 at this time, the photographing has not been performed yet, and the image data to be displayed is not stored in the first image memory 113, so that the process returns. on the other hand,
The content of the frame number counter is not 0, that is, at least 1
If image data of one sheet is stored, the current value of the display counter 1 is transferred to the image processing circuit 111 as address information of the image data stored in the first image memory 113 in S32. Then, a photographed image read instruction signal is sent to the image processing circuit 111 in S33, and a display signal is sent to the image processing circuit 111 in S34. The image processing circuit 111 determines an address of the first image memory 113 from the transferred value of the display counter 1, reads out digital image data in accordance with a captured image readout instruction signal, and causes the monitor device 5 to display an image. Then, in S35, an instruction to superimpose the character "EXP" is transferred. The image processing circuit 111 which has received this overwrites the display image with the character “EXP” on the upper right portion of the screen of the monitor device 5.

Subsequently, in S36 and S37, it is determined whether or not the down switch 109 and the up switch 108 are ON. As described above, the up switch 108 and the down switch 109 are switches for displaying an image other than the currently displayed image. If the down switch 109 is on, the previous image is displayed. If ON, the next image can be selected. If it is determined in S36 that the down switch 109 is ON, then the content of the display counter 1 is set to 1 in S38.
Check if it is. If the content of the display counter 1 is not 1 at this point, the content of the display counter 1 is decremented by 1 in S39, and the process returns to S32 to display the selected image. On the other hand, if the content of the display counter 1 is 1, it means that the image data stored first is already displayed, and it is not possible to go back to an image earlier than that. Therefore, the process returns without performing any processing. If it is determined in S37 that the up switch 108 is ON, "1" is added to the contents of the display counter 1 in S40, and the process returns to S32 to display the selected image.

FIG. 6 shows the routine of <Monitor Display 2>. First, it is checked whether or not the content of the memo counter is 0 in S41. If the content of the memo counter is 0 at this time, the image has not been stored yet, and the image data to be displayed is stored in the second image memory 11.
4, the process returns. On the other hand, if the content of the memo counter is not 0, that is, if at least one piece of image data is stored, S42
The current value of the display counter 2 is transferred to the image processing circuit 111 using the image data stored in the second image memory 114 as address information. Then, a memo image reading instruction signal is sent in S43, and a display signal is sent in S44. The image processing circuit 111 determines the address of the second image memory 114 from the transferred value of the display counter 2, sequentially reads out the digital image data in accordance with the memo image reading instruction signal, and causes the monitor 112 to display the digital image data. Then, in S45, an instruction to superimpose the character “MEMO” is transferred. Upon receiving this, the image processing circuit 111
The character “MEMO” is overwritten on the display image on the upper right part of the monitor 112.

Subsequently, in S46 and S47, it is determined whether or not the down switch 109 and the up switch 108 are ON. As described above, the up switch 108 and the down switch 109 are switches for displaying an image other than the currently displayed image. If the down switch 109 is on, the previous image is displayed. If ON, the next image can be selected. If it is determined in S46 that the down switch 109 is ON, then it is checked in S48 whether the content of the display counter 2 is 1. If the content of the display counter 2 is not 1 at this point, the display counter 2 is
Then, the process returns to S42 to display the selected image. On the other hand, if the content of the display counter 2 is 1, it means that the image data stored first is already displayed, and it is not possible to go back to an image earlier than that. Therefore, the process returns without performing any processing. If it is determined in S47 that the up switch 108 is ON, "1" is added to the content of the display counter 2 in S50, and the process returns to S42 to display the selected image.

The above is an embodiment of the present invention. In this camera, the digital image stored in the “exposure mode” and the digital image stored in the “memo mode” are stored in separate image memories, respectively. Information indicating which mode is stored may be stored in the index register. In this camera, which mode the image is stored in is "EXP" or "MEM".
Although the letter "O" is identified by superimposed display, the memo image may be bordered in red or blue, for example, to make it easier to identify.

[0021]

According to the present invention, in a camera capable of receiving a subject image by an image sensor and displaying the image on a monitor device such as an electronic viewfinder, the image can be displayed on the monitor device without wasting film. In addition, the usage as an information recording device can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a camera showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display state of a monitor device in the camera.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of the camera.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the camera.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the camera.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the camera.

[Description of Signs] 3 Mode selection member 5 Monitor device 5a Display screen 101 Control circuit 110 Manual operation member (release button) 111 Image processing circuit 113 First image memory 114 Second image memory 205 Image sensor

Claims (3)

[Claims] A photographing means for performing an exposure operation of exposing a subject image to a silver halide film; an imaging means for photographing a subject image substantially equivalent to the subject image exposed to the silver halide film; A first mode in which an exposure operation is performed by the imaging unit, and a first mode in which imaging is performed by the imaging unit in synchronization with the exposure operation, and an exposure operation by the imaging unit is not performed according to a release operation. Mode setting means for setting any one of the second modes for performing image processing, image data storage means for storing image data relating to a subject image picked up by the image pickup means, and when the second mode is selected. A camera for limiting the number of image data stored in the image data storage means. 2. When the second mode is selected, when the number of image data stored in the image data storage means reaches a predetermined value, new image data is stored in order from oldest image data. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the camera is rewritten as: 3. An image pickup means for picking up a subject image by an image pickup device in response to a release operation and outputting image data; an image data storage means for storing the image data output from the image pickup means; A first mode in which the number of image data stored in the storage means is not limited; and a first mode in which the number of image data stored in the image data storage means is limited, and when a predetermined value is exceeded, new image data is sequentially arranged from the oldest image data. Setting means for setting any one of the second modes for rewriting to a second mode.