JP2001078131A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily stop recording of image data to a recording medium or to conduct another similar processing in an electronic camera provided with a REC VIEW function. SOLUTION: The electronic camera is provided with an image pickup means 12, a temporary storage means 16 that temporarily stores image data, an image display means 22, recording medium 17, 18 that record the image data onto a recording medium, erasure means 17, 18 that erase the image data recorded on the recording medium, an instruction means 26 that instructs stop of recording of the image data onto a recording medium or erasure of the image data recorded on the recording medium, and a control means 15 that displays a picture on the basis of the image data stored in the temporary storage means after photographing, stops recording of the image data onto the recording medium when receiving an instruction from the instruction means during recording of the image data onto the recording medium, and erases the image data recorded on the recording medium when receiving an instruction from the instruction means after the end of recording of the image data onto the recording medium as its control.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic camera is different from a silver halide camera,
The feature is that the image can be confirmed on the spot where the image was taken.
Taking advantage of these features, the LCD is automatically
There is also proposed an electronic camera having a function of displaying a captured image (rec view function).

[0003]

However, the recview function is intended to automatically display a photographed image. Therefore, it is not easy to delete the image data from the recording medium even if the image photographed by the recview function is confirmed and it is determined that the image data of the image does not need to be recorded on a recording medium such as a memory card. That is, it is necessary to perform a troublesome operation such as performing an erasing operation after switching to the erasing mode once.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described conventional problems. In an electronic camera having a rec view function, it is determined that recording of image data obtained by photographing on a recording medium is not necessary. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic camera capable of easily canceling recording of image data.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera, comprising: an imaging unit for generating electronic image data by photoelectrically converting a subject image; and temporarily storing the image data obtained by the imaging unit. Temporary storage means, image display means for displaying an image based on the image data stored in the temporary storage means, recording means for recording the image data stored in the temporary storage means on a recording medium, and Erasing means for erasing the recorded image data; instructing means for instructing to stop recording the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the recording medium or erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium; and Controlling the image based on the image data stored in the temporary storage means to be displayed on the image display means for a predetermined time, and recording the image data on a recording medium by the recording means When the instruction is given from the instruction unit, control is performed to stop recording the image data stored in the temporary storage unit on the recording medium, and after the recording of the image data on the recording medium by the recording unit is completed. And control means for controlling the erasing means to erase the image data recorded on the recording medium when instructed by the instructing means.

Further, an electronic camera according to the present invention has an image pickup means for photoelectrically converting a subject image to generate electronic image data, and a temporary storage means for temporarily storing image data obtained by the image pickup means. Recording means for recording the image data stored in the temporary storage means on a recording medium, erasing means for erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium,
Instruction means for instructing to stop recording of the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the recording medium or erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium, image display means for displaying an image based on the image data, While the image data is being recorded on the recording medium by the recording means, an image based on the image data stored in the temporary storage means is displayed on the image display means, and when an instruction is given from the instruction means, the temporary storage is performed. Control to stop recording the image data stored in the recording medium on the recording medium, and after the recording of the image data on the recording medium by the recording means is completed, an image based on the image data recorded on the recording medium is deleted. A display period is provided to display the image on the image display unit, and when an instruction is given from the instruction unit, the image data recorded on the recording medium is deleted. And control means for controlling so as to erase the serial erasing means, characterized by comprising a.

The control means controls the image data stored in the temporary storage means to stop recording on the recording medium or to erase the image data recorded on the recording medium, and then return to a photographable state. It is preferable to do it.

At least one of a display time of the image based on the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the image display means and a display time of the image based on the image data recorded on the recording medium on the image display means. It is preferable that the apparatus further comprises setting means for setting the image data, and the control means controls the image display means to display an image based on the image data in accordance with the display time set by the setting means.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electronic camera according to the present embodiment.

The basic structure of the image pickup unit is the same as that of a normal electronic camera, and includes a lens unit 11, an image pickup device 12 including a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD, an image pickup circuit 13, and an A / D conversion circuit 14. ing. That is, the lens unit 11
By subjecting the subject image formed as described above to photoelectric conversion by the imaging device 12 and inputting the photoelectrically converted image signal to the A / D conversion circuit 14 via the imaging circuit 13, a digitally converted image signal is obtained. It is configured as follows.

System controller (syscon) 15
The electronic camera controls each part of the electronic camera, and has an image processing function for performing white balance processing and matrix operation, and a compression / expansion function for compressing and expanding image data.

The buffer memory 16 temporarily stores image data and the like obtained by the image pickup unit. The buffer memory 16 is also used as a work area for image processing such as white balance processing. further,
The buffer memory 16 is also used as a work area for compression / expansion processing of image data and thinning processing for displaying an image.

The memory interface 17 is a removable memory (memory card) 1 inserted into a card slot 18.
An interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from the removable memory 19 via the memory interface 17.
Is read from the image information.

The video memory 20 holds display data. The display data held in the video memory 20 is sent to a video conversion circuit 21, which performs predetermined processing for displaying an image on an image display LCD 22. The image display LCD 22 performs a simple display in which a simple image process such as approximating a γ-conversion with a straight line is performed at the time of the rec view. Further, an output signal from the video conversion circuit 21 can be transmitted to an external device via a video-out terminal 23.

The external interface 24 is an interface for communicating with an external device via an external input / output terminal 25.
Thus, various information such as image information can be transmitted to and received from an external device such as a personal computer.

The operation unit 26 gives various instructions to the electronic camera, and includes a release switch 26a, a mode selection switch 26b for selecting various modes, a rec view selection switch 26c for previously selecting whether or not to perform a rec view, and a rec view. A display selection switch 26d for preliminarily selecting whether to perform only the simple display or the simple display + the normal display, and to cancel the recording of the image data on the memory card or to cancel the deletion of the image data recorded on the memory card. The switch 26e includes a display time setting switch 26f for setting a display time (simple display time, normal display time) in the rec view. In the normal display, for example, an image is reproduced and displayed using image data recorded on a memory card by performing γ conversion (performed by software processing) using a formal curve. Therefore, display is performed with excellent image quality as compared with the simple display.

The mode display LCD 27 displays various modes, and the strobe light emitting section 28 emits a strobe when performing flash photography.

The power supply unit 29 supplies electric power to each unit of the electronic camera, and a battery 30 is connected to the power supply unit 29. Further, an external power supply can be connected to the power supply unit 29 via an external power supply terminal 31.

Next, an operation example of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to flowcharts shown in FIGS.

First, the operation when the photographing mode is selected by the mode selection switch 26b of the operation unit 26 shown in FIG. 1 (S1) as shown in FIG. 2 will be described.

First, it is determined whether or not the simple display time T1 and the normal display time T2 in the rec view need to be changed (S2), and if so, the simple display is set by the display time setting switch 26f. The time T1 and the normal display time T2 are changed (S3). Simple display time T
When 1 and the normal display time T2 are not changed, default values such as T1 = 3 seconds and T2 = 5 seconds are set.

When the release switch 26a is pressed (S
4), a predetermined imaging process is performed. That is, the image signal photoelectrically converted by the imaging device 12 is input to the A / D conversion circuit 14 via the imaging circuit 13, and the A / D conversion circuit 14 outputs image data (S5). This image data is stored in the buffer memory 16 (S6).

Subsequently, it is determined whether or not to perform a rec view on the image display LCD 22. Whether or not to perform the recview has been previously selected by the recview selection switch 26c (S7).

If the recview is not performed, a card recording process is performed (S8). This card recording process
This is performed as shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, image processing such as white balance processing and matrix calculation is performed on the image data stored in the buffer memory 16 (S101), and JPEG compression processing is performed on the image-processed image data (S10).
2) The compressed image data is transferred to a memory card (removable memory 19) via the memory interface 17.
(S103). Thus, the recording on the memory card is completed (S9).

When performing the recview, the card recording process (S10) and the simple display process (S11) are performed in parallel in time. The card recording process (S10) is as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

The simple display process (S11) is performed as shown in the flowchart of FIG. First, a thinning process is performed on the image data stored in the buffer memory 16, and the image data obtained by the imaging unit is converted into image data having a smaller number of data. This is because the number of display pixels of the image display LCD 22 is smaller than the number of pixels of the image sensor 12 (S111). The thinned image data is stored in the video memory 20 (S112),
Predetermined video processing is performed by the video conversion circuit 21 (S
113). A simple display image is displayed on the image display LCD 22 based on the signal obtained by the video processing (S114). As described above, only simple image processing is performed on image data obtained by the imaging unit without performing processing such as compression processing and recording on a memory card, and the image data is displayed on the image display LCD as a simple image. The photographed image can be checked immediately.

If the cancel switch 26e is pressed before the recording process on the memory card is completed (S12), the recording on the memory card is stopped (S13), and the process returns to step S2. When the recording process on the memory card is completed (S14), a recording end process is performed (S15).

When the cancel switch 26e is pressed after recording on the memory card is completed (S16), the image data recorded on the memory card is deleted (S17).
It returns to step S2 again. The simple display time T1 is set to be equal to or longer than the recording processing time of the image data on the normal memory card. Therefore, after the recording to the memory card is completed, the cancel switch 2
When 6e is pressed, the image data once recorded on the memory card is deleted. Simple display time T
If the cancel switch 26e is not pressed within 1 (S18), the simple display ends (S19).

As described above, the photographed image is confirmed on the image display LCD 22 as a simplified display image, and when the user determines that the image need not be stored in the memory card, the cancel switch 26e is set within the simplified display period. By pressing the button, the stop of the recording of the image data on the memory card or the erasure of the image data recorded on the memory card can be easily executed. Therefore, even when the image data is recorded on the memory card or after the image data is recorded on the memory card, the image data determined not to need to be recorded is not finally recorded on the memory card. Therefore, useless recording on the memory card can be prevented.

Next, after the end of the simple display, it is determined whether or not to continue the normal display (S20). Whether or not to perform the normal display is previously selected by the display selection switch 26d. The simple display image, as described above,
Since the image has not been subjected to formal image processing, the image quality is not always satisfactory from the viewpoint of the fidelity to the actually photographed image. Therefore, following the simple display, the normal display with high display quality can be performed.

If normal display is not performed, step S2
When the normal display is performed, as shown in FIG.
A normal display process is performed (S21).

The normal display process (S21) is performed as shown in the flowchart of FIG. First, the image data recorded on the memory card (removable memory 19) by the above-described card recording process (S10) is read from the memory card (S121). The read image data is stored in the buffer memory 16 (S122), and is subjected to JPEG decompression processing (S123). The decompressed image data is subjected to thinning-out processing (S124), stored in the video memory 20 (S125), and further subjected to predetermined video processing by the video conversion circuit 21 (S12).
6). Based on the signal obtained by this video processing,
The normal display image is displayed on the image display LCD 22 (S
127). As described above, by performing the normal display after the simple display, it is possible to confirm an image captured using an image with high display quality.

Before the end of the normal display, that is, when the cancel switch 26e is pressed within the normal display time T2 (S22), the image data once recorded on the memory card is deleted (S23), and the process returns to step S2. Also, if the release switch 26a is pressed before the end of the normal display (S24), the process returns to step S2. If the cancel switch 26e is not pressed within the normal display time T2 (S25), the normal display ends (S2).
6) Return to step S2.

As described above, an image having a high display quality can be viewed by the normal display. Therefore, even if the necessity of recording the image data on the memory card cannot be sufficiently determined only by the simple display, the necessity is ensured. Sex can be determined. Then, when it is not necessary to record the image data on the memory card, the image data recorded on the memory card can be easily erased by pressing the cancel switch 26e. Therefore, useless recording on the memory card can be prevented.

Next, the operation when the reproduction mode is selected by the mode selection switch 26b of the operation unit 26 shown in FIG. 1 as shown in FIG. 7 (S51) will be described.

First, image data stored in the memory card (removable memory 19) is read from the memory card (S
52). The read image data is stored in the buffer memory 1
6 (S53), undergoes JPEG decompression processing (S54), and further performs thinning processing (S55).
The image data subjected to the thinning processing is stored in the video memory 20.
(S56), and the video conversion circuit 21 performs predetermined video processing (S57). An image is displayed on the image display LCD 22 based on the signal obtained by the video processing (S58). If another image (frame) is to be displayed (S59), another frame is designated, and the above steps S52 to S58 are repeated.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof.

[0038]

According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent unnecessary image data from being finally recorded on a recording medium even during or after recording of image data on a recording medium. It can be reliably prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration example according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of a shooting mode according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of a shooting mode according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the card recording process shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the simple display processing shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation example of a normal display process shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation example of a reproduction mode according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Lens part 12 ... Imaging element 13 ... Imaging circuit 14 ... A / D conversion circuit 15 ... System controller 16 ... Buffer memory 17 ... Memory interface 18 ... Card slot 19 ... Removable memory 20 ... Video memory 21 ... Video conversion circuit 22 ... Image display LCD 23 ... Video out terminal 24 ... External interface 25 ... External input / output terminal 26 ... Operation unit 27 ... Mode display LCD 28 ... Strobe light emitting unit 29 ... Power supply unit 30 ... Battery 31 ... External power supply terminal

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5C022 AA13 AB15 AC03 AC11 AC31 AC32 AC42 AC54 AC69 AC73 5C052 AA17 AB04 CC11 DD02 EE02 EE03 EE08 GA02 GA03 GA06 GA07 GB06 GC00 GC05 GD03 GE04 GE08

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means for photoelectrically converting a subject image to generate electronic image data; a temporary storage means for temporarily storing image data obtained by the image pickup means; Image display means for displaying an image based on the obtained image data, recording means for recording the image data stored in the temporary storage means on a recording medium, erasing means for erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium, Instruction means for instructing to stop recording of the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the recording medium or erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium; and based on the image data stored in the temporary storage means after photographing. When an instruction is given from the instructing unit while the image data is being recorded on the recording medium by the recording unit, the image is controlled to be displayed on the image display unit for a predetermined time Performing control to stop the recording of the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the recording medium, and when instructed by the instruction means after the end of recording the image data on the recording medium by the recording means, An electronic camera, comprising: control means for performing control so that image data recorded on a recording medium is erased by the erasing means. 2. An image pickup means for photoelectrically converting a subject image to generate electronic image data; a temporary storage means for temporarily storing image data obtained by the image pickup means; Recording means for recording the recorded image data on a recording medium; erasing means for erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium; and stopping or recording the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the recording medium. Instruction means for instructing erasure of image data recorded in the image data, image display means for displaying an image based on the image data, and image data stored in the temporary storage means while the image data is being recorded on the recording medium by the recording means. The image based on the image data is displayed on the image display means, and when an instruction is given from the instruction means, the recording medium of the image data stored in the temporary storage means is displayed. After the recording of the image data on the recording medium by the recording means is completed, a period for displaying an image based on the image data recorded on the recording medium is provided, and the image is recorded on the recording medium. A control means for displaying on the image display means, and controlling to erase the image data recorded on the recording medium by the erasing means when instructed by the instructing means,
An electronic camera comprising: 3. The control means returns to a photographable state after stopping the recording of the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the recording medium or erasing the image data recorded on the recording medium. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the electronic camera performs control. 4. The display time of the image based on the image data stored in the temporary storage means on the image display means or the display time of the image based on the image data recorded on the recording medium on the image display means. It further comprises setting means for setting at least one, wherein the control means performs control to display an image based on image data on the image display means according to the display time set by the setting means. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein: