JP2002330322A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic camera that can photograph/record an image with an optional aspect ratio and photograph an object in a photographing state while confirming an image with the aspect ratio. SOLUTION: An analog/digital converter section 3 outputs image data expressing an image of an object formed on a light receiving face of an image pickup element 2. A CPU 17 receives settings of longitudinal and lateral sizes of each image instructed independently from an input instruction acquisition section 23 and controls a resize processing section 7 so as to convert a size of a picked-up image expressed in image data to have the instructed size. A compression processing section 10 compresses the converted image data expressing the picked-up image according to the instruction and records the compressed data onto a recording medium 11. The CPU 17 also controls a display processing section 14 so as to apply processing to an image of an unrecorded region of the picked-up image of the object image in a way of providing an effect as if the image of the region were seen through an overlapped translucent screen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique used in an electronic camera, and more particularly, to a technique for increasing the degree of freedom in the size of a recorded image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the spread of electronic cameras called digital cameras has been remarkable. This electronic camera generally captures a subject image and records image data representing an image of the subject image on a recording medium such as a memory card.

[0003] Many electronic cameras provide image quality modes with different combinations of the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of an image to be recorded or the size of the image and the compression rate of data compression applied to image data representing the image. The image quality of the recorded image can be selected by the user selecting the image quality mode.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an image quality mode prepared for a certain electronic camera. In this electronic camera,
There are four types of image quality modes, which are roughly named TIFF, SHQ, HQ, and SQ. Less than,
FIG. The TIFF mode is an image quality mode for recording image data in a format according to an image format called TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). When this mode is selected, data compression is not performed on the image data. In this electronic camera, the user can select the number of pixels of the recorded image from the five types shown in the figure in the image recording in the TIFF mode. In the TIFF mode, data compression is not performed on image data, so that image recording with good image quality can be performed, but the amount of image data representing one image is extremely large.

The SHQ mode and the HQ mode are image quality modes for recording image data representing an image composed of all 2048 × 1536 pixels included in the image pickup device provided in the electronic camera. , SHQ mode is a mode for recording an image data whose data amount is compressed to about １ ／, and an HQ mode is a mode for recording an image data whose data amount is compressed to about ８. . Due to this difference in data compression ratio,
The image quality of the image recorded in the SHQ mode is better than the image recorded in the HQ mode.

The SQ mode is an image quality mode in which the user can select the number of pixels of the recorded image and the compression ratio of the data compression applied to the image data. And the compression ratio of the data compression applied to the image data can be selected from about 1/3 or about 1/8, similar to the SHQ / HQ mode.

In selecting an image quality mode, for example, when high-quality image recording is required, for example, on the premise of printing, an image quality mode in which the number of pixels is large and the data compression ratio is low or data compression is not performed is selected. On the other hand, when image data with a small data amount is desired, such as when transmitting image data over a communication line with a small communication capacity, an image quality mode with a small number of pixels and a high data compression rate is selected. General.

[0008]

In the conventional electronic camera, the aspect ratio of the recorded image, that is, the aspect ratio of the recorded image, is determined in advance regardless of the number of pixels of the selected image or the size of the image size. Ratio, for example, vertical:
The aspect ratio is fixed to a horizontal ratio of 4: 4, or the user has only a degree of freedom to select from a few prepared aspect ratios, and an electronic camera records an image at an arbitrary aspect ratio. I couldn't do that. Therefore, in order to obtain an image having a desired aspect ratio, the user has performed operations such as trimming a recorded image obtained by shooting after shooting.

In addition, in order to perform trimming processing on recorded image data, a PC and image processing software must be prepared as processing tools, and there is a financial burden for preparing these. Had occurred. Further, if the work such as trimming the recorded image obtained by the photographing is performed after the photographing, it is difficult to confirm the image with a desired aspect ratio at the time of photographing. In some cases, dissatisfaction was left in the composition balance in the image.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic camera capable of photographing and recording an image having an arbitrary aspect ratio, and capable of photographing while confirming an image having the aspect ratio at the time of photographing. It is a task to do.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera which captures a subject image and obtains image data representing a captured image of the subject image, and a vertical and horizontal size of the image. Image size setting means for setting each independently, a conversion means for converting the size of an image represented by image data into a size set by the image size setting means, and a size of the photographed image by the conversion means Recording control means for controlling recording of image data representing an image obtained by conversion on a recording medium, and displaying a captured image represented by the image data obtained by the imaging means; When the size of the captured image is changed by the above, a display is also performed so that an image in an area that is not included in the converted image can be identified. To solve the aforementioned problems by be configured to have an image display unit.

According to the above arrangement, the image aspect ratio can be arbitrarily set by independently setting the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image to be recorded. The image of the ratio is recorded on the recording medium. In addition, the user can take a picture while checking the image of the set aspect ratio on the image display means. In addition, the user can visually recognize the image of the area that is not recorded on the recording medium by setting the aspect ratio. This makes it possible to shoot and record images with a well-balanced composition.

In the above-described electronic camera according to the present invention, the electronic camera further includes image processing means for combining a translucent screen on which the image of the area is identifiable with the captured image, and the image display means comprises: The image processing unit may be configured to display a captured image in which the screen is synthesized.

According to this configuration, the identifiability of the area not recorded on the recording medium is improved. Here, the image processing means may be configured to change at least one of the brightness and the color of the screen based on the brightness of the captured image and combine the screen with the captured image. By doing so, for example, when the brightness and color of the captured image and the screen are close to each other, the visibility of the screen can be improved by changing the brightness and color of the screen.

In the above-described electronic camera according to the present invention, the recording control unit may reduce the size of the thumbnail image having the same aspect ratio as that of the image obtained by the conversion by the conversion unit. May be configured to further perform control for recording image data expressing the image data on a recording medium.

According to this configuration, the user can recognize the outline of the aspect ratio of the image recorded on the recording medium only by reproducing and displaying the thumbnail image. In the above-described electronic camera according to the present invention, a reduced image obtained by reducing the size of an image represented by image data recorded on a recording medium is arranged in a fixed arrangement regardless of the aspect ratio of the image. It may be configured to further include index image display means for displaying a plurality of index images arranged.

According to this configuration, by viewing the index image, the user can collectively recognize the outline of the aspect ratio of the image recorded on the recording medium for a plurality of images. Further, since the reduced images are arranged in this index image in a fixed arrangement irrespective of the difference in aspect ratio, it is possible to reduce a cluttered impression from the index image.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera embodying the present invention. The focusing lens 1 forms a subject image on the light receiving surface of the image sensor 2.

The image pickup device 2 converts a subject image formed by the focusing lens 1 into an electric signal. In this embodiment, a complementary color filter including any one of four colors of yellow (Ye), cyan (Cy), magenta (Mg), and green (G) is provided for each pixel as an image sensor. A CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is used.

The A / D converter 3 performs analog-to-digital conversion for converting an electric signal, which is an analog signal, output from the image sensor 2 into image data, which is digital data. CDS (Correlated Double Sampling) processing unit 4
Performs a process of reducing a noise component included in an output signal of the image sensor 2.

The color signal generation unit 5 converts R (red), which is the three primary colors of the additive color mixture, for all the pixels from the image data obtained based on the subject image obtained by the image sensor 2 through the above-described complementary color filter. ), G (green),
A process is performed to convert the data indicating the brightness of each color of B (blue) into image data in which the data is aligned.

The AWB and gamma correction processing unit 6 performs automatic white balance (AWB) processing for compensating the color temperature of an image, and gamma for correcting the brightness gradation of each pixel in the image.
A correction process is performed on the image data. The resizing processor 7 changes the image data in accordance with a setting instruction from the user, and acquires image data of a resized image obtained by trimming the image to the specified size while maintaining a fixed aspect ratio.

The cut-out processing unit 8 changes the image data in accordance with the setting instruction from the user, and deletes the images included in the upper and lower ends or the left and right ends of the image resized by the resize processing unit 7. Get the data. The matrix processing unit 9 converts the representation of the color data of each pixel in the image data from the representation of each of R, G, and B colors into a Y component as a luminance component, a Cb component as a color difference component, and a C component.
The expression is converted into an expression using the r component.

The compression processing unit 10 is a JPEG (Joint Photog)
data compression processing of image data according to the user's setting instruction, and further compresses (or uncompresses) the image data of the image represented by the image data. At the same time, control for recording on the recording medium 11 is also performed.
The image data is stored in the recording medium 1 in a data file format.
1 and the image data of the thumbnail image is stored together with the data file as image data representing an image whose size has been reduced while maintaining the aspect ratio of the original image. .

The recording medium 11 stores image data. For example, a memory card can be used.
When data compression processing has been performed on image data read from the recording medium 11, the expansion processing unit 12 performs data expansion processing on the image data.

The YUV conversion unit 13 converts the image data obtained based on the subject image obtained through the above-mentioned complementary color filter by the image pickup device 2 into a luminance component so as to be convenient for display on the LCD display 16. Is converted into image data in which the color of each pixel is expressed by the Y component and the U component and the V component that are color difference components. The decompression processing unit 1
The image data represented by YCbCr components output from 2 is also converted into image data represented by YUV components which are convenient for display on the LCD display 16.

In response to a user's instruction to set the number of pixels, the display processing unit 14 translucents the upper and lower ends or the left and right ends of the image on the LCD display 16 where no recording is to be performed. A halftone process is performed, which is a process that gives an effect that the image of the area is seen through the screen over the screen. Details of the halftone process will be described later. In addition, the display processing unit 14 also performs image processing such as generation of character data for displaying various information such as operation setting display on the LCD display 16 and superimposition synthesis on another image in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 17.

The video encoder 15 performs digital-to-analog conversion for converting image data which is digital data to an image signal which is an analog signal, and signal conversion for converting an image signal to a video signal which is a format of an input signal of the LCD display 16. Perform

An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) display 16 is a liquid crystal display element for displaying an image represented by an input video signal. The CPU 17 is a central processing unit that controls the operation of the entire electronic camera. The SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) 18 is a CP
A random access memory used as a work memory used when the control process is performed by the U17 and as an image data memory for temporarily storing image data.
Memory.

AF / AE / AWB data acquisition section 19
Means AF (Auto Focus) and AE (Auto E
xposure) ・ Acquires data for each control process of automatic white balance. The drive control unit 20 includes a CP
In accordance with the instruction from U17, the operation of the drive motor 21 is controlled.

The drive motor 21 is a motor for moving the focusing lens 1 to move the focal point of the focusing lens 1. The imaging control unit 22 responds to an instruction from the CPU 17
The imaging operation of the imaging device 2 is controlled.

The input instruction obtaining unit 23 is a general term for a group of button switches operated by a user, and the CPU 17 obtains an instruction from the user based on an operation performed by the user on the input instruction obtaining unit 23. The input instruction acquisition unit 23 has a release button for the user to issue a shooting instruction, a mode button for switching the operation mode of the electronic camera, and up, down, left and right instruction buttons. There are different cross key switches depending on the operation mode.

The electronic camera according to the present embodiment includes the above components. It is assumed that the image quality mode shown in FIG. 4 is prepared in this electronic camera, similarly to the conventional electronic camera. Next, FIG. 2 will be described. FIG. 2 shows an example of a screen displayed on the LCD display 16 provided in the electronic camera shown in FIG. Hereinafter, each screen shown in FIG. 2 will be described.

FIG. 3A is an example of a setting screen displayed when the operation mode of the electronic camera is set to the shooting operation setting mode. This screen shows the TIFF in the image quality mode described above.
When the mode or the SQ mode is set for this electronic camera, this is displayed when “free size” in which the user can arbitrarily set the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image is selected.

In the figure, the numeral shown in the figure is the number of remaining images that can be recorded, which is a numerical value indicating how many more images can be recorded on the recording medium 11. Note that this remaining number of shots is a value determined by the free space of the recording medium 11, the image quality mode, and the number of pixels of the screen to be recorded, and a method for obtaining this value will be described later.

[0036] is a display showing the image quality mode currently set for the electronic camera when performing image recording, and this screen shows that the SQ mode is selected. Is a display indicating the degree of data compression applied to image data when performing image recording in the SQ mode. In this electronic camera, for example, data compression of about 1/8 can be performed on captured image data. The character of "standard" is selected when it is selected, and the character of "high image quality" is selected when it is selected that data compression having a lower compression ratio than that of "standard" is performed on the photographed image data. Characters are displayed in this part.

The numerals and indicate the number of pixels of the image currently set in the electronic camera when the image is recorded, and indicate the number of horizontal pixels and the number of vertical pixels, respectively. Is shown. Is the input instruction acquisition unit 23
The display indicates that the number of horizontal pixels at the time of image recording can be changed at present by operating the cross key switch of. When this display is being performed, operating the buttons indicating the up / down direction of the cross key switch increases / decreases the number of horizontal pixels indicated in accordance with the operation. Here, when the button indicating the right of the cross key switch is operated, the display moves from around the display to around the display, and it is now possible to change the number of vertical pixels shown in Is shown. In addition, the button indicating the left of the cross key switch is operated when the display is displayed around the display, or the button indicating the right of the cross key switch is displayed when the display is displayed around the display. By operating, the change of the setting of the image quality mode and the change of the data compression ratio in the SQ mode, which are displayed later, can be performed by operating the cross key switch.

Further, in order to clearly indicate to the user the image area included in the image of the number of pixels indicated by the numeral and recorded in the current image screen of the image sensor 2 displayed on the LCD display 16. Is a color (for example, blue) and translucent screen display.

The size of the entire screen shown in FIG.
8 pixels × 1536 pixels in height, and L in the present embodiment
Since the aspect ratio of the CD display 16 is 3: 4, the entire screen (a) is displayed on the LCD display 16. Here, since the current setting of the number of pixels at and is 1600 horizontal pixels × 1536 vertical pixels, L
The screens shown in the following are combined and displayed on the left and right ends of the screen displayed on the CD display 16 that are not recorded on the recording medium 11. It is convenient if the width of the screen is changed immediately according to the change in the setting of the number of pixels in and so that the range of the image area to be recorded can be immediately recognized.

In the following description, the parameter K is used when specifying the value of the aspect ratio of an image, and this value is calculated as a value obtained as a result of the calculation (number of vertical pixels) / (number of horizontal pixels). It will be shown. In (a), the number of pixels is set to 1600 pixels horizontally × 1 pixel vertically.
Since there are 536 pixels, the value of K at this time is 15
36/1600 = 0.96.

FIG. 4B shows a screen displayed on the LCD display 16 when the operation mode of the electronic camera is set to the photographing mode. If the operation mode is set to the photographing mode when the photographing operation setting of the electronic camera is set as shown in (a), the current photographed image (through image) by the image sensor 2 is displayed on the LCD display 16 (b).
Is displayed as follows. At this time, in accordance with the settings shown in (a), the screens shown in (1) and (2) are synthesized and displayed for the left and right end areas of the through image that are not recorded. Since this screen is translucent, the image of this area in the captured image is displayed so as to be seen through.
This screen combining process can be realized by, for example, a process of transmitting and combining screen tones composed of single color dots arranged at a uniform pitch as used for so-called shading. This is the halftone process.

When the display mode (a) is superimposed on the through image as shown in (b) when the operation mode of the electronic camera is the shooting operation setting mode, recording is performed while viewing the through image. This is convenient because the range of the image area to be set can be set. (C) shows the screen display when the aspect ratio K of the recorded image determined by the number of pixels set in (a) and (a) is less than 0.75. The screen as shown in a) is displayed as being superimposed on the upper and lower ends of the through image.

FIG. 4D shows that the electronic camera reads out image data recorded on the recording medium 11 when the photographing operation setting is set as shown in FIG.
3 shows a reproduced image when reproduced and displayed on the CD display 16. In the present embodiment, when the aspect ratio between the LCD display and the recorded image does not match, priority is given to reproducing and displaying the entire recorded image, and the area where the recorded image does not exist has a monochromatic color such as a so-called blue background. The screen is filled with the display.

FIG. 5E shows a case where the electronic camera reads a plurality of images of image data recorded on the recording medium 11 when the photographing operation setting is set as shown in FIG. 16 shows a screen when so-called index display is performed. As shown in (e), the image (index image) displayed on the index display screen is a reduced reproduction image of the entire display screen of the LCD display 16 shown in (d). In this manner, a plurality of reduced images are arranged in a fixed arrangement irrespective of the difference in the aspect ratio of the image (in this example, nine reduced images are arranged in an arrangement of 3 × 3) and an index image is arranged. , It is possible to reduce a cluttered impression from the index image due to a difference in aspect ratio between the individual images.

(F) is a through image display screen similar to (c), but when the through image is dark, that is, when the average of the luminance data of the pixels in the image data is small, the screen color (color) ) Is changed to a bright color such as white, yellow or pink to improve the visibility of the presence or absence of the screen. Further, instead of changing the color of the translucent screen, the brightness of the screen may be changed.

It should be noted that FIGS. 2 (a), (b), (c),
The screen shown in (f) is displayed on the LCD display 16 when the number of vertical and horizontal pixels in the original through image matches the number of vertical and horizontal pixels in the image set in, that is, when both aspect ratios match. It is not displayed, but is displayed when the aspect ratios of the two are different. By doing so, the user can easily recognize that the electronic camera is set to record an image with an aspect ratio different from normal.

Next, an example of a method for obtaining the number of remaining shootable images shown in FIG. 2A will be described. When the image quality mode of the electronic camera is the TIFF mode, first, the following equation is calculated.

N = (free space) ÷ (number of pixels × 3 + header capacity) Here, the free space and the number of pixels of the recording medium 11 are the number of pixels constituting the recording image (the number of vertical pixels of the image × the number of horizontal pixels) ). "3" indicates that each pixel is represented by RGB 3-byte data. Note that the header capacity is the capacity of header information added to the image data file recorded on the recording medium 11.

The maximum natural number that does not exceed the value n obtained by this equation is the remaining number of shootable images. As a numerical example, the free space of the recording medium 11 is 16777216
Bytes (16 Mbytes), the number of pixels that make up the image is 2 vertical
000 pixels, horizontal 1000 pixels, header capacity 15000
If it is a byte, 2 <n (approximately 2.79) <3, and the number of remaining shootable images is determined to be two.

When the image quality mode of the electronic camera is SHQ,
When the HQ and SQ modes are set and the image data is subjected to the JPEG data compression processing, first, the following equation is calculated. n = (free space) ÷ (number of pixels × 2 × compression ratio + header capacity) Here, in the image data after the data compression processing by the JPEG method, the luminance and the hue are 2 bytes per pixel. Of the data. The compression ratio indicates the compression ratio of data compression that can be set in the data compression process according to the JPEG method. In this electronic camera, when recording an image with "standard" image quality, it is 1/8, and "high image quality". When performing the image recording in the above, a value of 1/3 is used.

The maximum natural number that does not exceed the value n obtained by this equation is the remaining number of shootable images. As a numerical example, the free space of the recording medium 11 is 16777216
Bytes (16 Mbytes), the number of pixels that make up the image is 2 vertical
000 pixels, horizontal 1000 pixels, header capacity 15000
When recording an image with “high image quality”, 12 <n (approximately 12.4) <13, and the remaining number of recordable images is determined to be 12.

In the compression processing of the image data,
Actually, the image data is not always compressed to such an extent that the set value of the compression ratio is satisfied, so that the calculation of the remaining number of recordable images may be performed with some allowance. The remaining number of shootable images is obtained as described above.

Hereinafter, the CPU 1 of the electronic camera shown in FIG.
7 will be described. FIG.
5 is a flowchart showing the contents of a control process performed by the CPU 17; A series of processes shown in FIG.
Is realized by executing.

FIG. 3A shows the contents of the photographing operation setting mode processing. This processing is performed by the input instruction acquisition unit 23
The operation is started when the operation mode of the electronic camera is switched to the shooting operation setting mode by an operation performed on, and ends when the operation mode is switched to another mode other than the shooting operation setting mode.

First, in step S101, an instruction is given to the display processing unit 14 to perform image processing for synthesizing a through image from a photographing operation setting screen shown in FIG. 2A. L of the synthesized image
It is displayed on the CD display 16.

In S102, the operation content of the cross key switch of the input instruction acquisition unit 23 is acquired, and an instruction to change the display of the photographing operation setting screen to one based on the operation content is given to the display processing unit 14. In S103, the image quality mode is set to T based on the operation content acquired in the previous step.
It is determined whether or not an instruction has been given to switch to the IFF mode or the SQ mode. If the determination result is Yes, S1
04, if No, go to S109.

In S104, it is determined whether the setting when the image quality mode of the electronic camera is the TIFF mode or the SQ mode is set to "free size". If the determination result is Yes, the process proceeds to S105.
If so, the process proceeds to S109.

In S105, the aspect ratio K at the time of image recording obtained by setting the number of pixels obtained by the operation content obtained in S102 is a predetermined ratio K.
It is determined whether the value matches 0 (for example, 0.75). If the determination result is Yes, the process proceeds to S106.
Then, go to each.

In S106, it is determined whether or not the brightness (brightness) of the current through image, which can be grasped from the data obtained from the AF / AE / AWB data acquisition unit 19, is lower than a predetermined value. If the determination result is Yes, the process proceeds to S108, and if No, the process proceeds to S107.

In S107, as shown in (b) or (c) in FIG. 2, an instruction to perform image processing (halftone processing) for superimposing and synthesizing a screen on a through image is given to the display processing unit 14, and The composite image obtained by the image processing performed according to the instruction is displayed on the LCD display 16 as a through image. After finishing this process, the process returns to S101, and a process of synthesizing the through image shown in FIG.
Thereafter, the above-described processing is repeated.

In S108, as shown in FIG. 2 (f), an instruction to perform image processing for superimposing and synthesizing a screen using a bright color such as white, yellow or pink is given to the display processing unit 14. The composite image obtained by the image processing performed according to the instruction is displayed on the LCD display 16 as a through image. After finishing this process, the process returns to S101, where the process of combining the through image shown in FIG. 2A with the through image is performed, and thereafter, the above process is repeated.

In S109, the through image is displayed on the LCD display 16 without being subjected to image processing by the display processing unit 14. After finishing this process, the process returns to S101, where the process of combining the through image shown in FIG. 2A with the through image is performed, and thereafter, the above process is repeated.

The above processing is the photographing operation setting mode processing. Next, FIG. 3B will be described. The flowchart shown in the figure shows the processing contents of the shooting mode processing. This process is started when the operation mode of the electronic camera is switched to the shooting mode by an operation performed on the input instruction obtaining unit 23, and thereafter, when the operation mode is switched to another mode other than the shooting mode. To end.

First, in S201, S1 in the photographing operation setting mode process of FIG. 3A, which is executed based on the current setting state of the photographing operation of the electronic camera.
07, S108, and S109, an instruction to perform image processing for creating a through image similar to that obtained by any one of the processes is given to the display processing unit 14, and the composite image obtained by the image processing is displayed. The image is displayed on the LCD display 16 as a through image.

In S202, it is determined whether or not the first release, that is, a so-called half-press operation has been performed on the release button of the input instruction acquisition unit 23, and until the determination result becomes Yes, that is, the first release is detected. The determination process of S202 is repeated until the determination is made.

In step S203, an instruction is given to the drive control unit 20 to control the drive motor 21 based on the data acquired by the AF / AE / AWB data acquisition unit 19, and to move the position of the focusing lens 1 to capture an image. An AF control process for appropriately forming a subject image formed on the light receiving surface of the element 2 is executed.

In S204, an AE control process for giving an instruction to the imaging control unit 22 to control the imaging device 2 based on the data acquired by the AF / AE / AWB data acquisition unit 19 and appropriately setting the exposure is performed. Be executed. In S205, the release button of the input instruction acquisition unit 23 is
It is determined whether or not a d-release, that is, a so-called full-press operation has been performed. Until the determination result is Yes,
That is, this S2 is maintained until the second release is detected.
05 is repeated.

In step S206, each part of the electronic camera is controlled, and the image data representing the subject image formed on the light receiving surface of the image sensor 2 is recorded on the recording medium 11 together with the image data of the thumbnail image. The processing is executed. In S207, an instruction is given to the AWB and γ correction processing unit 6, and an automatic white balance process is executed based on the data acquired by the AF / AE / AWB data acquisition unit 19. After the photographing process is completed, the process proceeds to S
Returning to 201, the above-described processing is repeated.

The processing described above is the photographing mode processing.
The CPU 17 executes the control processing shown in FIG. 3 so that the electronic camera shown in FIG. 1 can check an image with an arbitrary aspect ratio at the time of shooting, and can shoot an image with the aspect ratio. Become like

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various improvements and modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described electronic camera, an instruction for the number of vertical and horizontal pixels for an image to be recorded on the recording medium 11 has been obtained. In order to obtain the selection result selected by the user from the predetermined setting values as shown in the above and the specification result of the aspect ratio of the image arbitrarily specified by the user, the vertical and horizontal pixels of the selected predetermined value are obtained. It is also possible to record on the recording medium 11 a partial image obtained by trimming the image composed of the image with the specified aspect ratio and including the widest area of the image before trimming.

Further, it is possible to designate the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image to be recorded on the recording medium 11 beyond the number of pixels of the image obtained from the image pickup device 2. It is also possible to increase the number of pixels constituting the image by performing the interpolation processing described above, and then to cause the resize processing unit 7 to resize the image.

Further, instead of synthesizing a translucent screen in an area of the through image that is not recorded on the recording medium 11 and displaying the image on the LCD display 16, the image in the area is converted into a monochrome image such as monochrome or sepia tone. It is also possible to convert the image into an image having a different contrast or color from the image of the area to be recorded and to display the image.

[0073]

As described above in detail, the electronic camera according to the present invention has an image pickup section for picking up an image of a subject and obtaining image data representing a captured image of the subject image; An image size setting unit that independently sets the size in the horizontal direction; a conversion unit that converts the size of the image represented by the image data into the size set by the image size setting unit; A recording control unit that controls recording of image data representing an image obtained by conversion by the conversion unit on a recording medium; and displays a captured image represented by the image data obtained by the imaging unit. An image display unit that also performs display for enabling identification of an image in an area that is not included in the converted image when the size of the captured image is converted by the conversion unit. Configured to.

With the configuration described above, in the electronic camera according to the present invention, the image aspect ratio is arbitrarily set by independently setting the size of the image to be recorded in the vertical and horizontal directions. It becomes possible to record an image having the set aspect ratio on a recording medium. In addition, the user can shoot while checking the image of the set aspect ratio, and can view the image of the area not recorded on the recording medium with the setting of the aspect ratio. You can shoot and record good images.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a screen display example on an LCD display.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the contents of a control process performed by a CPU.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image quality mode prepared in the electronic camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Focusing lens 2 Image sensor 3 A / D conversion part 4 CDS processing part 5 Color signal conversion part 6 AWB and gamma correction processing part 7 Resize processing part 8 Cutout processing part 9 Matrix processing part 10 Compression processing part 11 Recording medium 12 Decompression Processing unit 13 YUV conversion unit 14 Display processing unit 15 Video encoder 16 LCD display 17 CPU 18 SDRAM 19 Data acquisition unit for AF / AE / AWB 20 Drive control unit 21 Drive motor 22 Imaging control unit 23 Input instruction control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06T 3/40 G06T 3/40 A 5C080 G09G 3/20 650 G09G 3/20 650G 660 660C 680 680V 3/36 3/36 H04N 1/387 H04N 1/387 F-term (Reference) 2H054 AA01 BB11 BB12 5B057 AA20 BA24 CA01 CA08 CA12 CA16 CB01 CB08 CB12 CB16 CC03 CD05 CE08 CE09 CE11 CE17 CH01 CH11 DA16 DB02 DB06 DB09 5C006 AA47 AF52 AF52 AF53 AF71 AF81 BB11 EC01 FA03 5C022 AA13 AB68 AC01 AC13 AC69 5C076 AA02 AA14 AA19 AA22 AA26 AA27 BA06 CA02 CB02 5C080 AA10 BB05 DD21 EE21 JJ01 JJ02 JJ07 KK42

Claims (5)

[Claims] An image capturing unit that captures a subject image to obtain image data representing a captured image of the subject image; an image size setting unit that independently sets a vertical size and a horizontal size of the image; Conversion means for converting the size of an image represented by image data into a size set by the image size setting means; image data representing an image obtained by converting the size of the photographed image by the conversion means Recording control means for controlling the recording of the image on a recording medium, and displaying the captured image represented by the image data obtained by the imaging means, and when the size of the captured image is converted by the conversion means, Image display means for additionally displaying an image of an area that is not included in the converted image so as to be identifiable. Electronic camera. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an image processing unit configured to synthesize a translucent screen on which the image of the region is identifiable with the captured image, wherein the image display unit synthesizes the screen by the image processing unit. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein a captured image is displayed. 3. The image processing unit according to claim 2, wherein at least one of a color and a luminance of the screen is changed based on a luminance of the captured image, and the screen is synthesized with the captured image. 3. The electronic camera according to 2. 4. The recording control means records, on a recording medium, image data representing a thumbnail image having the same aspect ratio as the image obtained by the conversion by the conversion means and having a reduced size. 2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, further comprising control for causing the electronic camera to perform the control. 5. An index image in which a plurality of reduced images obtained by reducing the size of an image represented by image data recorded on a recording medium in a fixed arrangement regardless of a difference in aspect ratio of the image is displayed. 5. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an index image display unit that performs index image display.
An electronic camera according to any one of the preceding claims.