JP2000089389A - Exposure device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for easily regulating the light quantity of an exposure means of a digital exposure device to an adequate light quantity according to a change of a photosensitive material. SOLUTION: The digital exposure mechanism has an LED array 51 which is arrayed with many LED elements to the length of the max. width to be front-printed, a switching circuit 52 which controls the on and off of this LED array 51 by each of the respective LED elements, a voltage control circuit 53 which variably controls the drive voltage to be supplied to this LED array 51, a printing pattern control circuit 54 which outputs the control signal to this switching circuit 52 according to a printing pattern selection signal and a control signal output circuit 55 which has a electronic volume function for controlling the voltage control signal (Vref) to the voltage control circuit 53 in accordance with a printing channel selection signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital exposure apparatus for directly printing a digital image on a photosensitive material by an exposure means having a number of light emitting elements arranged in rows.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a dot pattern such as a character or a figure, which is separately generated or read and digitized by an LED array in which a large number of LED elements are arranged, is used.
2. Description of the Related Art There is a digital exposure apparatus that directly exposes a photosensitive material such as photographic paper to perform development processing and the like. In particular, apart from the analog image of each frame of the negative film, a date and specific characters and figures are printed in or on the image of each frame.
In the so-called front print function, the above digital exposure apparatus is employed. Such a function is illustrated in FIG.
(A), the print is cut for each frame, and as shown in FIG. 6 (B), the index print is obtained by printing a plurality of frames on one print. ing.

In a photographic processing apparatus equipped with such a digital exposure apparatus, when the type of photographic paper changes, the sensitivity to a specific light wavelength may vary greatly depending on the characteristics of the photographic paper. In such a case, the LE used for the exposure of the digital exposure device is set for each type of photographic paper.
It was necessary to adjust the light amount of the D array. For example, FIG.
Since the main part of the conventional digital exposure apparatus having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 includes the LED array 100 and its voltage control circuit 110, the voltage adjusting semi-fixed resistor 120 of the voltage control circuit 110 is Specialized work such as adjustment was required. Even if an appropriate drive voltage is known for each type of photographic paper, the voltage of the drive circuit 110 or the voltage of the LED array must be adjusted using a precision measuring instrument such as a digital voltmeter. Therefore, such an adjustment work is an operation in which an appropriate professional serviceman adjusts an appropriate adjustment component on a control circuit board using an appropriate measuring instrument, so that a general mere operator is required. It wasn't easy to work with.

[0004]

The above-mentioned specialized adjustment work by a specialized service person is required, for example, every time the photographic paper is changed. was there. Therefore, there has been a demand for a digital exposure apparatus that can be easily and reliably adjusted by a general mere operator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a means capable of easily and accurately adjusting the light amount of an exposure means in a digital exposure apparatus according to a change in a photosensitive material.

[0006]

In a digital exposure apparatus according to the present invention, a plurality of light emitting elements to which a drive voltage is applied are individually controlled in accordance with a pattern to be printed, so that a predetermined amount of light is applied to a photosensitive material. In a digital exposure apparatus configured to expose a pattern, output means for outputting a drive voltage designation signal for designating a drive voltage to be supplied to the light emitting means, and a drive voltage designation signal output from the output means. And voltage control means for controlling a drive voltage supplied to the light emitting means.

Further, the light emitting element may be constituted by an LED element which is turned on when a drive voltage is applied. Further, it is preferable that the drive voltage designation signal is output by selecting a signal preset for each type of photographic paper to be exposed.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a digital exposure apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing an embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an automatic photographic printing apparatus, which is a scanner unit 11 for reading an image of each frame of a developed negative film F, and sequentially exposing the image of each frame of the negative film F to a photographic paper P. And a developing unit 13 for developing the photographic paper P after printing, washing with water, and drying. The exposure unit 12 includes a digital exposure mechanism 15 using an LED array in addition to a film image exposure mechanism 14 that optically exposes an image on the negative film F. The film image exposure mechanism 14 irradiates light from a light source to the negative film F via an optical path such as a shutter or a filter, and designates exposure light transmitted through the negative film F via an optical path including a lens group. The printing paper P of the print channel is configured to be exposed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the digital exposure mechanism 15 has an LED array 51 in which a large number of LED elements are arranged in a row with a maximum width to be front-printed.
A switching circuit 52 for turning on and off the LED array 51 for each LED element;
A voltage control circuit 53 for variably controlling the drive voltage supplied to the control circuit 1, a print pattern control circuit 54 for outputting a control signal to the switching circuit 52 in accordance with a print pattern selection signal, and a voltage to the voltage control circuit 53. A control signal output circuit 55 having an electronic volume function for controlling a control signal (Vref) based on a print channel selection signal.
It has.

The voltage control circuit 53 has a power supply terminal (I
N) The power supply voltage (for example, DC 24V) supplied to the control signal input terminal (Ref) is changed according to the voltage of the control signal input terminal (Ref), and stabilization control such as ripple elimination is performed and output from the output terminal (OUT). It is composed of IC. The control signal output circuit 55 is a so-called electronic volume IC that can change the resistance value between the resistance terminals (R0, R1) by a digital signal, and has a designation terminal (U) for designating whether to increase or decrease the resistance value.
/ D) and an input terminal (INC) for inputting a signal for increasing or decreasing the resistance value. For example, while the signal to the input terminal (INC) is valid and short-circuited to ground, it depends on whether the designated terminal (U / D) is short-circuited to ground.
The resistance value between the resistance terminals (R0, R1) keeps changing.
Two resistors R2 connected in series to the resistor terminals (R0, R1)
A series resistor circuit composed of 0 and R21 is connected between the output terminal (OUT) and the ground, and a connection point between the two resistors R20 and R21 is connected to the control signal input terminal (Ref).

FIG. 3 shows a specific circuit configuration example around the voltage control circuit 53 and the control signal output circuit 55 shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the power supply voltage (DC24
V) is output under the control of an appropriate drive voltage according to the type of printing paper by a voltage control circuit 53 composed of a variable voltage regulator. This drive voltage is supplied to the LED array 51. The drive voltage output from the voltage control circuit 53 is controlled according to the voltage input to the control signal input terminal (Ref). Therefore, the resistance value between the resistance terminals (R0, R1) of the control signal output circuit 55 is
(U / D) and the signal supplied to the input terminal (INC), thereby changing the voltage input to the control signal input terminal (Ref), thereby changing the drive voltage output from the voltage control circuit 53. Can be changed.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 2 denotes reading means provided in the scanner section 11 for reading magnetic information recorded by scanning a magnetic recording section of a negative film, and includes a magnetic sensor 21, a signal amplification circuit 22, and a signal processing circuit. The circuit 23 is provided. When magnetic information such as a photographing date and time is written on a magnetic recording portion of a negative film like an APS film, the magnetic sensor 21 of the reading means 2 is used.
The magnetic information is read out by the signal amplification circuit 22, amplified by a signal amplification circuit 22, processed by a signal processing circuit 23, subjected to signal processing such as conversion into a digital signal, and output.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a CP provided in the scanner unit 11.
U, and based on the output from the reading means 2,
A print pattern selection signal corresponding to a pattern to be printed such as date data is output. In the case of a negative film on which no magnetic information is written, or when the date data cannot be read from the reading unit 2, a specific date or the like can be separately set as the print pattern. . Further, the CPU 3 outputs a setting signal to the control signal output circuit 55 in order to supply a drive voltage according to the characteristics of the photographic paper of the designated print channel based on a separately designated print channel selection signal. Output. Note that the case where the print channel selection signal is supplied from the outside to the CPU 3 has been exemplified, but it is needless to say that the print channel selection signal may be generated inside the CPU 3. The setting signal is output with reference to a table stored in the system memory 31 of the CPU 3.
That is, switching of the designated terminal (U / D) and control of a signal to the input terminal (INC) are performed so that the drive voltage matches the optimum drive voltage set in the table.

As shown in parentheses in FIG. 2, A /
The drive voltage output from the voltage control circuit 53 is monitored by the CPU 3 using the D converter 56, and feedback control is performed so that the drive voltage matches the optimum drive voltage for each type of photographic paper. Control becomes possible. Further, as shown in FIG.
The control voltage supplied to the control voltage input terminal (Ref) of A is C
The digital signal from PU3 is converted to a D / A converter 55A.
May be supplied by converting to an accurate analog voltage.

Since the automatic photographic printing apparatus 1 has the above-described configuration, by selecting a print channel, the film image exposure mechanism 14 of the exposure unit 12 allows the film image exposure mechanism 14 of the exposure unit 12 to set the width of the print channel. In addition to the selection of photographic paper or surface-quality photographic paper, the digital exposure mechanism 15 changes the drive voltage to a drive voltage that allows exposure of the photographic paper set in the print channel to the desired density. That is, when the photographic paper is changed in accordance with the change of the print channel, the drive voltage detected via the A / D converter 56 is referred to the table according to the selected photographic paper, and the optimum drive voltage is set in the table. It is automatically controlled so that the drive voltage becomes appropriate. Even if the sensitivity to the wavelength of light emitted from the LED array is changed to a different photographic paper due to such an automatic change of the drive voltage, the drive voltage is changed to compensate for the difference in sensitivity, and the desired density is adjusted. Since the exposure is performed, the desired color development is obtained after development.
In this way, the photographic paper on which the image of each frame of the negative film and the front print pattern such as the date are exposed,
The developing unit 3 performs a developing process, a rinsing process, a drying process, etc., and discharges sequentially.

When exposing a photosensitive material such as photographic paper having characteristics not previously registered in the table, it is necessary to register a drive voltage or a setting signal suitable for the photosensitive material. In that case, the front print density setting screen shown in FIG. 5 is called and input by the setting function. When the setting function is activated and the screen shown in FIG. 5 is called, the front print location is set at the back or front for each type of width of the target photosensitive material (for example, a width of 82.5 mm to 210 mm). In such a case, data corresponding to the setting signal is input. As described above, the drive voltage can be changed to a preset voltage by the CPU 3, the control signal output circuit 55, and the voltage control circuit 53 only by inputting data. This eliminates the need for manual setting work. In addition, by appropriately rewriting the table, it is possible to always obtain an optimal front print. Such rewriting can be performed by calling the screen of FIG. 5, but it is also possible to automatically rewrite all at once by exchanging a portable recording medium. It is also possible to rewrite from a remote place via a means such as a communication line.

In the above description, it is assumed that the print of the front print after development is colored in a single color of cyan. However, depending on the change of the elements of the LED array, it is possible to change or combine various colors of light emission. become.
Alternatively, a front print of various colors can be realized by using a filter. like this,
When front prints of various colors are realized, it is preferable to set and register in the table a drive voltage for compensating the sensitivity depending on the type of photographic paper for each color. Therefore, not only front prints for each color but also front prints of eight colors, 256 colors, or more detailed colors are possible by mixing these colors. Also in this case, by setting and registering a table for each color, even if the printing paper is changed, it becomes possible to realize a front print of the desired color.

[0019]

According to the digital exposure apparatus of the present invention,
It is equipped with voltage control means for controlling the drive voltage supplied to the light emitting means via the output means, so when a kind of photosensitive material is changed, it is not necessary for a professional serviceman to use a precise measuring instrument. Therefore, a general operator or user can easily change the drive voltage to an optimum value. In addition, since the drive voltage can be automatically changed via the voltage control means in conjunction with the operation of changing the photosensitive material, the operation of changing to a photosensitive material having various characteristics can be performed extremely efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an automatic photographic printing apparatus provided with a digital exposure apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a digital exposure apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a main part of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the digital exposure apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a front print density setting screen.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of using a front print function.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a conventional digital exposure apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Automatic photographic printing apparatus 12 Exposure part 13 Developing part 14 Film image exposure mechanism 15 Digital exposure mechanism 51 LED array 52 Switching circuit 53 Voltage control circuit 54 Print pattern control circuit 55 Control signal output circuit 2 Reading means 21 Magnetic sensor 22 Signal amplification circuit 23 signal processing circuit 3 CPU

Claims (3)

[Claims] A digital exposure apparatus configured to expose a predetermined pattern on a photosensitive material by individually controlling a plurality of light emitting elements to which a drive voltage is applied according to a pattern to be printed. Output means for outputting a drive voltage designating signal for designating a drive voltage to be supplied to the light emitting means, and voltage control for controlling a drive voltage supplied to the light emitting means based on the drive voltage designating signal outputted from the output means. Means for digital exposure. 2. The digital exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light emitting element is constituted by an LED element which is turned on when a drive voltage is applied. 3. An output means for selecting and outputting a drive voltage designation signal preset for each type of photosensitive material to be exposed.
2. The digital exposure apparatus according to claim 1.