JP2001211356A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent misoperations such as the ejection of recording media by enabling an electronic camera which can communicate with external equipment through a communication interface to present information notifying a user that communications are in progress without providing any additional dedicated means. SOLUTION: A camera 10 is connected to external equipment such as a personal computer through a USB terminal 160 and sends and receives data such as images and commands. The camera has a finder lamp 58 and a self- timer lamp 18, a liquid crystal monitor 28, a loud speaker 184, etc., as means necessary for a photographing function and a reproducing function. Those camera-attached means are used in common as an access information presenting means corresponding to an access lamp and when a medium is accessed in the USB mode, the user is informed that communications are in progress through specific display and voice output.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic camera,
In particular, the present invention relates to a device for notifying an operation state of an electronic camera capable of transmitting and receiving data to and from an external device via a USB (Universal Serial Bus specification based communication standard) terminal or other communication interface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A digital camera converts an image photographed through an image sensor into digital image data and records the digital image data on a recording medium (removable medium) such as a memory inside the camera or a removable IC card. The image recorded in this way can be displayed on a display device such as a liquid crystal monitor (LCD), and can be transferred to an external device such as a personal computer via a recording medium or a communication interface and used.

For example, a digital camera having a USB terminal is connected to a personal computer via a USB cable,
Image data and the like can be transferred from the camera side to the personal computer, and image data transfer and various operation commands can be transmitted from the personal computer side to the camera.

[0004]

However, in the conventional digital camera, erroneous operations such as accidentally disconnecting a communication cable or disconnecting a recording medium during data transmission / reception with an external device in a communication mode occur. It was easy.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides an electronic camera capable of preventing an erroneous operation by a user during communication with an external device.

[0006]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image pickup device, recording means for recording an image taken via the image pickup device, and wired or wireless communication. Communication means capable of transmitting and receiving information to and from an external device, wherein the electronic camera has at least one of an information display means, an image display means, and an audio output means used at the time of shooting or reproduction. Means, and the means attached to the camera are also used as access information presenting means for presenting access information indicating that the electronic camera is communicating during transmission / reception of information via the communication means. It is characterized by:

According to the present invention, the electronic camera and the external device are communicably connected by the communication means, and data such as images and commands are transmitted and received between the two. The camera has information display means such as viewfinder lamps and self-timer lamps,
The apparatus includes at least one of an image display unit such as a liquid crystal monitor, a function display unit of an operation key for an audio output unit such as a speaker, and a speaker. The means attached to the camera also has a function as an access information presenting means corresponding to an access lamp, and when a medium is accessed in a communication mode, a predetermined display or audio output is performed to notify the user that communication is being performed. . Thus, it is not necessary to add a dedicated means separately, and the user can easily recognize that the electronic camera is performing the communication operation.

[0008] As a specific embodiment of the means attached to the camera,
As described in claim 2, there is at least one of a finder lamp, a self-timer lamp, a liquid crystal monitor, a function display section of operation keys, and a speaker.

In particular, when an image display means for displaying a photographed image or a reproduced image is applied as means attached to the camera as described in claim 3, when the electronic camera communicates, the screen of the image display means is displayed. There is a mode in which at least one of a message indicating that communication is in progress, information of an image being transferred, and information of a transfer time is displayed as the access information.

Further, as described in claim 4, claim 3
In the electronic camera of (1), a power input terminal and external power detection means for detecting whether or not an external power supply is connected to the power input terminal are added, and the external power detection means supplies power from the outside via the power input terminal. There is a mode in which the image display means is used as access information presenting means on condition that the supply is detected.

When power is supplied from a battery (internal power supply), it is preferable to present the access information using a means that consumes less current, such as a finder lamp and a self-timer lamp.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an electronic camera according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a digital camera to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. This camera 10
Is a digital camera capable of recording and reproducing moving images, still images, and audio. A lens barrier 12, a finder window 14, a strobe light control sensor 16, a self-timer lamp 18, and a microphone unit 20 are provided on the front of the camera. . A photographing lens (not shown in FIG. 1) is provided behind the lens barrier 12, and the lens barrier 12 slides and moves to a predetermined retracted position (open position) inside the main body when photographing, so that the photographing lens is formed. Appears.

Behind the taking lens, C as an image pickup device
A CD image sensor (not shown in FIG. 1; described as 66 in FIG. 5; hereinafter, referred to as a CCD) is arranged and the CC
The image signal read from D66 is converted into digital image data through predetermined signal processing. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the side of the camera 10 (the right side in FIG. 1) has a memory card insertion slot (card slot),
Speaker section, video output terminal (VIDEO OUT), serial communication terminal, USB terminal and power input terminal (for example, DC IN
3V terminal). In FIG. 1, reference numeral 22 denotes a card slot cover (card cover), 24 denotes a grip portion,
Is a strap attaching portion, and 28 is a battery cover.

On the upper surface of the camera 10, a release button 30, a mode dial 32 and a pop-up type flash light emitting device 34 are provided. Release button 3
Numeral 0 is means for instructing the start of recording of an image, and is also used as a recording button for instructing the start and stop of recording when recording a moving image. The mode dial 32 is the release button 30
The mode of the camera 10 can be changed by turning this dial to stop it in accordance with the index 35. With the structure in which the release button 30 is arranged inside the ring-shaped mode dial 32, these operation members can be provided on the camera body with a good space efficiency.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the camera 10. On the back of the camera 10, the viewfinder 36 and the LCD monitor 3
8, a power switch 40, a mode selection lever 42, a cross key 44, a dot matrix liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as dot matrix liquid crystal) 46, a shift key 48, a display key 50, a menu / execute key 52, a cancel key 54, and the like are provided. Have been.

The liquid crystal monitor 38 is composed of a color liquid crystal display, and displays an image taken in through a CCD and a reproduced image read out from a memory card. Various information such as the number of recordable images and the number of reproduced frames are also displayed.

The power switch 40 is constituted by a push switch, and the power of the camera 10 can be turned on / off by pressing the switch. The camera 10 has an auto power-off function, and when a non-operation state continues for a predetermined time (for example, 2 minutes), the power is automatically turned off. The auto power-off operation time can be set by the user. To return from the power-off state by the automatic power-off function, the power switch 40 may be pressed again.

The mode selection lever 42 is a means for selectively switching between a photographing mode and a reproduction mode. The mode selection lever 42 is rotatably supported on the outer periphery of the power switch 40 and can be stopped at two positions: a photographing system mode position (upper stop position) and a reproduction system mode position (lower stop position). It is composed of

The cross key 44 includes an up key 44U and a down key 4
The push switch is composed of four push switches 4D, a left key 44L, and a right key 44R, and these four keys are arranged in a symmetrical positional relationship along the same circumference. Four-way controller 4
4, a circular window 56 is formed, and a dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is provided in the window 56.
The device itself of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 has a window 56.
It has a larger square display surface, but the display range is limited by the window 56.

The dot matrix liquid crystal 46 displays the functions and mode states of the upper, lower, left and right keys 44U, 44D, 44L, 44R. Although a detailed display mode will be described later, the display surface of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 includes an upper display unit 46U, a lower display unit 46D, and a left display unit 46 located near the keys 44U, 44D, 44L, and 44R.
L, the right display section 46R, and a central display section 46C located at the center of these sections, which are divided into five display areas (FIG. 7A).
), A mark relating to the function of each key 44U, 44D, 44L, 44R of the cross key 44 and, if applicable, a mark indicating the state set by the key are displayed on each of the upper, lower, left and right display sections. A mark indicating the operation mode (main mode) of the camera 10 is displayed on the central display section 46C.

The display control of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 and the liquid crystal monitor 38 is linked (linked), and a multifunctional operation section is realized by an operation section having a display function in which the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is arranged inside the cross key 44. Have been.

The shift key 48 is a push switch for further expanding the functions of the cross key 44 and other key switches. When the shift key 48 is pressed as necessary, a shift guidance indicating an extension operation using the shift key is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38 on-screen.
By performing a predetermined key operation according to the guidance, the user can input various settings such as, for example, brightness adjustment of a monitor.

The display key 50 is a switch for turning on / off the display of the liquid crystal monitor 38 in the photographing mode. In the playback mode, each time the key 50 is pressed once, the “one-frame playback on-screen display (OS
D) display ”→“ No OSD display for single-frame playback ”→“ Multi-playback (with OSD display for 3 seconds) ”cyclically. However, during menu display, “Single-frame playback” ←
→ The display switches to “Multi playback”.

In the photographing mode, when the display key 50 is pressed down, the display on the liquid crystal monitor 38 can be turned ON / OFF, and a power saving photographing mode in which the angle of view is adjusted by looking through the viewfinder 36 can be set. However, the liquid crystal monitor 38 cannot be turned off in the macro mode.

A finder lamp 58 is provided beside the finder 36, and the operating state and state of the camera 10 are represented by a combination of the lighting color of the lamp and the lighting state (lighting / flashing).

The menu / execute key 52 is used to make a transition from the normal screen of each mode to the menu screen, or, in the menu screen of each mode, to make the selection items valid and to display the normal screen (when the menu has a plurality of menu layers). Is used to transition to the previous screen). Specifically, menu display in shooting mode and playback mode, selection of items, confirmation of deletion items and execution of deletion, selection and execution of protection items, selection and execution of print specification items, selection and execution of print specification items, selection of menu items It is used when confirming, selecting the date and time setting, returning to the shooting menu, and the like.

The cancel key 54 is used to cancel (cancel) an item selected from the menu or to return to the previous operation state (undo).

In the area between the mode selection lever 42 and the left key 44L of the cross key 44, a small projection row corresponding to the finger rest 60 is formed in an embossed manner. The finger rest 60 is provided substantially at the center of the range in which the thumb moves when operating the cross key 44 and other operation parts.
This is a place where the thumb is placed and a position where the camera 10 can be stably held.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the mode dial 32. The mode dial 32 has a setup mode, a movie shooting mode, a continuous shooting mode, a manual shooting mode,
Auto shooting mode, portrait (portrait) mode,
This is means for selectively switching between various modes of a landscape shooting mode and a night view shooting mode. On the upper surface of the mode dial 32, a symbol mark representing each mode (a pictogram or a symbol representing the mode or a combination thereof) is attached. When the mark of the desired mode is set to the position of the index 35, the mode is switched to that mode. Is set.

For example, when the setup mode is selected, a setup screen is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38. The setup menu includes the recording quality (quality), the number of pixels, and the ON / OFF state of the LCD monitor 38 at startup.
There are various setting items such as OFF selection, auto power off time, opening screen display setting, date and time setting, and the like.

The photographer selects the up / down key 44 of the cross key 44
By operating the U and 44D, the item to be changed is selected from the setup screen, the setting content is changed by the left / right keys 44L and 44R, and then the setting is confirmed by the execution key 52.

For example, in the quality setting item, three types of image quality (recording compression ratio) of fine, normal and basic can be selected according to the purpose of photographing.
Fine is 1/4 (JPEG) compression, normal is 1/8
(JPEG) compression, basic is 1/16 (JPEG)
Compression. In the pixel setting, 2400 × 180
Any of 0, 1280 × 960 and 640 × 480 can be selected. In the setting of the auto power off time, 5 minutes, 2 minutes
Either minute or auto power function OFF can be selected. In the setting of the opening screen, you can select "ON setting" to display a predetermined opening screen on the LCD monitor when the power is turned on, and "OFF setting" not to display the opening screen.If you select "Screen registration", An image to be displayed as the opening screen can be registered and changed.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the camera 10. Photographing optical system 62 arranged behind lens barrier 12
Is a 3 × zoom lens (for example, f = 7.4 mm to 22 m
m: equivalent to 35 mm to 105 mm in terms of a 35 mm camera), an aperture, and a mechanical shutter. Lens barrier 1
A zoom drive unit 63 having a zoom motor is also used as a unit for driving the opening and closing of the zoom motor 2.

In the finder 36, the photographing optical system 62
A zoom finder linked to is used. The finder lamp 58 is a red light emitting diode (LED)
58R and a green light-emitting LED 58G.
R and 58G are turned on / flashed or simultaneously turned on / flashed, and three colors of red / green / orange are displayed.

The light incident through the photographing optical system 62 is imaged on the light receiving surface of the CCD 66 through the optical low-pass filter 64. The CCD 66 has a honeycomb structure in which light receiving sensors corresponding to photosensitive pixels are two-dimensionally arranged in a honeycomb pattern, and the color filter employs a so-called “oblique Bayer arrangement”. Of course, a CCD having a known structure such as a G stripe or a Bayer arrangement may be applied.

The CCD 66 is provided with a shutter drain via a shutter gate. By driving the shutter gate with a shutter gate pulse, accumulated signal charges can be swept out to the shutter drain. That is, the CCD 66 has a so-called electronic shutter function of controlling the accumulation time (shutter speed) of the electric charge accumulated in each sensor by the shutter gate pulse.

The subject image formed on the light receiving surface of the CCD 66 is converted by each light receiving sensor into a signal charge of an amount corresponding to the amount of incident light. The signal charge accumulated in this way is CC
The signal is read out by a CCD drive pulse applied from the D drive circuit 68 and is sequentially output from the CCD 66 as a voltage signal (analog image signal) corresponding to the signal charge.

The signal read from the CCD 66 is applied to an analog processing section 70. The analog processing unit 70 includes a sampling hold circuit and a gain adjustment circuit,
The image signal output from D66 is subjected to correlated double sampling (CDS) processing and R,
Each of the G and B color signals is subjected to color separation processing, and the signal level of each color signal is adjusted (pre-white balance processing).

The signal output from the analog processing unit 70 is converted into R, G, and B digital signals by an A / D converter 72, and then a built-in buffer 76 in a signal processing IC 74, an I / O bus interface 78, The data is stored in the SDRAM 82 via the chip bus interface 80. The built-in buffer 76 is used for thinning out the number of pixels according to the screen size of the display system.
The SDRAM 82 is used as an image memory.

CCD drive circuit 68, analog processing section 70
The A / D converter 72 receives a timing signal from a timing generator 84, and the timing signal synchronizes these circuits.

The data stored in the SDRAM 82 is sent to an automatic operation unit 88 via a bus 86 and to a signal processing unit 90. The automatic calculation unit 88 performs various calculations such as a focus evaluation calculation and an AE calculation based on the input image signal, and transmits the calculation results to the system controller 92. The system controller 92 controls the AF driving unit 94 including an AF motor and the shutter / iris driving unit 96 including a shutter / iris motor to move the focus lens to the in-focus position based on the calculation result received from the automatic calculation unit 88. Set the aperture to the appropriate aperture value, and set the mechanical shutter and CCD6
6 is controlled.

For example, in the AF control, a contrast AF method in which the focus lens is moved so that the high frequency component of the G signal is maximized is adopted. In the AE control, the subject brightness (shooting EV) is obtained based on the integrated value of the R, G, and B signals of one frame, the aperture value and the shutter speed are determined based on the shooting EV, and the shutter / iris drive is performed. Driving the aperture through means 96;
The charge accumulation time of the CCD 66 is controlled by the electronic shutter so as to achieve the determined shutter speed. Therefore, by simply pointing the photographing lens of the camera 10 at the subject, optimal exposure adjustment is performed and focusing is performed automatically.

At the time of shooting and recording, the release button 3
When the “half-press” of 0 is performed, the above-described photometric operation is repeated a plurality of times to obtain an accurate shooting EV, and the aperture value and shutter speed at the time of shooting are finally determined based on the shooting EV.
Then, when the release button 30 is "fully pressed", the aperture is driven so as to have the final determined aperture value.
The charge accumulation time is controlled by the electronic shutter so as to achieve the determined shutter speed. AE, A
For F, a well-known photometric sensor or a distance measuring sensor including an AF light emitting / receiving sensor may be used instead of the method of controlling based on the image signal acquired from the CCD 66.

The signal processing section 90 is a digital signal processing block including a luminance / color difference signal conversion circuit, a gamma correction circuit, and the like. The RGB data input to the signal processing unit 90 is converted into a luminance signal (Y signal) and a color difference signal (Cr, Cb signal), is subjected to predetermined processing such as gamma correction, and is written into the SDRAM 82 again. Will be returned.

The luminance / color difference signals (abbreviated as YC signals) stored in the SDRAM 82
M94. The data stored in the VRAM 94 is sent to an encoder 96, where it is converted into a signal of a predetermined system for display (for example, a color composite video signal of the NTSC system) together with character and symbol data supplied from a character generator 98. .

The output of the encoder 98 is the D / A converter 10
0 is supplied to the LCD controller 102. The image signal converted to an analog signal by the D / A converter 100 is LC
The image is supplied to the D control unit 104, and an image is output to the liquid crystal monitor 38. The LCD 106 has a backlight 106
Is provided, and the backlight 106 is turned ON / OFF in conjunction with ON / OFF of the monitor display. The display means is not limited to the liquid crystal display, and another display device capable of color display may be applied.

The output of the D / A converter 100 can be externally output from a video output terminal (VIDEO OUT) 112 via a low-pass filter 108 and a 75Ω driver 110.

The image data is periodically rewritten by an image signal output from the CCD 66, and a video signal generated from the image data is supplied to the liquid crystal monitor 38. The image is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38 as a live image) or as a substantially continuous image, though not in real time.

The liquid crystal monitor 38 can be used as an electronic view finder, and the photographer can confirm the photographing angle of view with the display image on the liquid crystal monitor 38 or the finder 36. In response to a predetermined recording instruction (shooting start instruction) operation such as a pressing operation of the release button 30, the capture of image data for recording is started.

When the photographer inputs a photographing record instruction from the release button 30, the system controller 92
A command is sent to the PEG operation unit (corresponding to the compression / expansion circuit) 114, and the JPEG operation unit 114
The image data on 82 is compressed according to JPEG or another predetermined format. The compressed image data is sent to the card interface 118 via the media controller 116.
And is recorded on the memory card 120 attached to the card interface 118.

When a mode for recording uncompressed image data (uncompressed mode) is selected, the JPE
The image data is recorded on the memory card 120 without being compressed, without performing the compression processing by the G operation unit 114.

The JPEG operation unit 114 has both processing functions of a still image compression process and a moving image compression process.
It is recorded by the PEG method. Of course, MPEG, M
PEG2 or another recording method may be adopted.

In the digital camera 10 of this embodiment, a memory card 120 is used as recording means for storing image data. Specifically, for example, smart media (Soli
d-State Floppy Disk Card) is applied. The form of the recording medium is not limited to the above, and various forms such as a PC card, a micro drive, a multimedia card (MMC), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, and a memory stick are possible. Appropriate signal processing means and interfaces are applied.

In the reproduction mode, image data read from the memory card 120 is subjected to decompression processing by the JPEG operation unit 114, and the VRAM 94, the encoder 96, and the D
It is output to the liquid crystal monitor 38 via the / A converter 100.

A serial input / output unit 122 is connected to the bus 86, and a serial communication interface 124
, Data can be transmitted / received to / from an external device (not shown). The serial input / output unit 122 includes an LCD controller 126 for controlling the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, and a D / A converter 12 with an electronic volume.
8 and the EEPROM 130 are connected.

Among the command signals output from the system controller 92 and the CPU block 132, an electronic shutter control command given to the CCD drive circuit 68, a guide number selection command of the strobe light emitting device 34, and the LCD controller 1
For the command to 04, a command signal converted into an analog signal via the D / A converter 128 with the electronic volume is given.

The bus 86 has a clock controller 134, a programmable input / output port 136, an A / D converter 138, a key-on controller 140, and a multifunction timer 14 in addition to the circuit blocks described above.
2, a watchdog timer 144, an interrupt controller 146, and a DMA controller 148 are connected, and each circuit block is connected to an I / O bus interface 78.
Is connected to the CPU block 132 via the.

The CPU block 132 is a control section (control means) for controlling the entire circuits of the camera 10.
Core 150, cache memory 151, built-in DRAM 15
2 The CPU block 132 is connected to the I / O controller 154 and the SDRAM controller 155, and via the chip bus interface 80, the SDRAM 82, the flash ROM 15
6. Connected to USB driver 158. By connecting a cable to the USB terminal 160, the camera 10
Can transmit and receive data to and from a personal computer and other external devices (not shown).

The CPU core 150 includes operation units 162 and 16
4, and controls the operation of the corresponding circuit based on input signals received from various detection means. That is, the CPU core 150
Controls the zooming operation of the photographing optical system 62, controls the focus adjustment (AF) operation, controls the automatic exposure adjustment (AE), and controls the timing generator 84 to control the charge accumulation time of the CCD 90. . Also, CPU
The core 150 also functions as a display control unit of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

The operation unit 162 is a block including a cross key 44, a shift key 48, a display key 50, a menu / execute key 52, and a cancel key 54.
Is a block including switches corresponding to the release button 30, the mode dial 32, the power switch 40, and the mode selection lever 42. When the power switch 40 is pressed, the signal is applied to the get-up signal generation circuit 165,
The get-up signal generation circuit 165 to the signal processing IC 7
4 is provided with a get-up signal, and the IC is activated. In the camera 10 of this example, the operation units 162 and 164 are provided on the camera body. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which a part corresponding to the operation units 162 and 164 is separated from the camera body as a remote control transmitter.

As detecting means provided in the camera 10, a barrier open switch for detecting the open / closed state of the lens barrier 12, a sensor for detecting a zoom position (for example, constituted by a potentiometer or an encoder), and a focus. There are a sensor for detecting the home position of the lens, a card detection switch 166 for detecting the presence or absence of the memory card 120, a cable connection detecting means for detecting whether or not a video cable is connected to the video output terminal 112, and the like.

The strobe light emitting device 34 includes a light emitting unit 168,
It is composed of a strobe light control sensor 16, a capacitor 170, and a strobe control unit 172. Operation unit 16
2, a "low-brightness automatic light-emitting mode" in which a strobe is automatically fired at low brightness in accordance with a predetermined operation from
The mode can be set to a “red-eye reduction mode”, a “forced light emission mode” in which strobe light is emitted regardless of subject brightness, or a “light emission inhibition mode” in which strobe light emission is inhibited.

The CPU block 132 controls the flash control unit 17 according to the flash mode selected by the user.
Give the command to 2. Strobe control unit 172
Controls the charge control of the capacitor 170 and the discharge (light emission) timing to the light emitting unit 168 (for example, a xenon tube) based on a command applied from the CPU block 132, and based on the detection result of the strobe light control sensor 16. Control of emission stop is performed. Strobe light control sensor 16
A light receiving element that receives reflected light from a subject illuminated by flash light emission and converts the light into an electric signal corresponding to the amount of received light is used. The detection signal of the strobe light control sensor 16 is integrated by an integration circuit (not shown), and the emission of the strobe light is stopped when the integrated amount of received light reaches a predetermined appropriate amount of received light.

As the power supply of the camera 10, an external power supply connected to the battery 174 or the external power supply input terminal 176 can be used. As the battery 174, for example, two AA batteries are used. Of course, it is also possible to design to use a dedicated secondary battery.

The type of power supply used is determined by the battery detector 178.
, And the detection information is input to the CPU core 150. Electric power provided from the battery 174 or an external power supply connected to the external power input terminal 176 is converted into a required voltage by the DC / DC converter 180 and supplied to a predetermined circuit block.

The camera 10 has a microphone 18
2 and a speaker 184, and a microphone 182
Is input to the CPU core 150 via the A / D converter 138. The audio data output from the CPU core 150 is a D / D with an electronic volume.
The signal is supplied to the speaker 184 via the A converter 128, and is output from the speaker 184 as sound.

The audio data input from the microphone 182 can also be recorded on the memory card 120, and the audio recorded on the memory card 120 can be reproduced by the speaker 184.

Next, the operation of the camera 10 configured as described above will be described.

FIGS. 6 to 9 are explanatory diagrams showing the camera operation when shooting a movie. The power switch 40 is turned on with the mode selection lever 42 set to the “shooting mode” and the mode dial 32 set to the “movie shooting mode”.
When operated, the camera 10 starts up in the movie shooting mode.

When “ON setting” is selected in the opening screen setting, “He” is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 when the camera is started, as shown in FIG.
llo! Is displayed. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 6B, a predetermined opening screen is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38, and at the same time, the display of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is switched to the display of the mark (movie mode mark) indicating the movie shooting mode. . The movie mode mark is composed of a combination of a mark that stylizes a movie camera so as to symbolize recording of a moving image and a character indicating the recordable time in seconds.

When the setting of the opening screen is ON, when the power switch 40 is turned off, the character "Bye!" Is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, and then the power is turned off.

On the other hand, "O"
When "FF setting" is selected, only the movie mode mark is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 when the camera is started up as shown in FIG. 6C, and the liquid crystal monitor 38 remains OFF. .

After a lapse of a predetermined time (for example, one second) from the state of FIG. 6B or FIG. 6C, the screen switches to the movie shooting screen as shown in FIG. 7A. During this one second, predetermined initial processing is performed inside the camera, and the camera is prepared to be ready for shooting.

When the camera 10 reaches a state in which recording by movie shooting is possible (during standby), a mark indicating that the mode is the movie mode is displayed on the center display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46. At this time, press the four-way controller
4, the upper key 44U is assigned to a telephoto (telephoto) operation function of the optical zoom, the lower key 44D is assigned to a wide-angle (wide) operation function of the optical zoom, and the left key 44L is assigned to a macro mode setting / cancellation function for setting and canceling the macro mode. Have been.

The keys 44U, 44D, 44L, 4
In order to present the function of the 4R to the user, a zoom-up mark is displayed on the upper display unit 46U of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, a zoom-down mark is displayed on the lower display unit 46D, and a macro mode mark is displayed on the left display unit 46L. Regarding the macro mode mark, the macro mode is
Since the FF is started in the state of the FF, a mark representing that the macro mode is OFF is displayed to indicate the current setting state of the macro mode. In this state, left key 44L
When the button is pressed, the macro mode is turned ON, and the mark display on the left display section 46L is also switched to a mark indicating that the macro mode is ON (see FIG. 29C).

During movie standby shown in FIG. 7A, no function is assigned to the right key 44R of the cross key 44, so that the right display section 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 does not display (blink). . This allows
The user can easily recognize that the right key 44R is an invalid operation key.

Set / cancel macro mode by right key 4
Although it is possible to assign to the 4R, the left key 44 located far from the end face of the camera body and near the center of the main body.
Unintended key touch (erroneous operation) assigned to L
ON / OFF of the macro mode can be prevented. In consideration of such operability, in the camera 10 of the present embodiment, the left key 44R is a macro mode setting / cancellation switch.

During standby, the LCD monitor 38 displays CC
A through image captured by D66 is displayed, mode information 202 indicating the movie shooting mode is displayed at the upper left of the screen, character information 204 such as "Standby" is displayed slightly above the center of the screen, and date information 206 is displayed at the lower left of the screen. . This date display (206) disappears after a predetermined time (for example, three seconds), and becomes a display as shown in FIG. 7B. When the date setting is OFF in the setup, the display "----,-,-" blinks instead of the date, and disappears after 3 seconds.

When the up key 44U or the down key 44D is pressed in the state of FIG. 7B, a zoom bar 208 indicating the zoom position is displayed on the left side of the liquid crystal monitor 38. Zoom bar 2
08 is displayed by a vertical bar, the upper side indicates the telephoto (tele) side, the lower side indicates the wide angle (wide) side, and the up key 44U and the down key 44D.
Are associated with each other. At the upper end of the zoom bar 208, a letter "T" indicating the tele side is displayed, and at the lower end of the zoom bar, a letter "W" indicating the wide side is displayed. The display of the zoom bar 208 automatically disappears after a predetermined time (for example, three seconds) has elapsed after the up key 44U or the down key 44D is pressed.

When the shift key 48 is pressed in any of the states shown in FIGS. 7A to 7C, the screen shifts to a shift guidance screen as shown in FIG. 8A. At this time,
"Shift guidance" is displayed on the upper left of the screen of the LCD monitor 38.
Is displayed, and "monitor brightness setting → [shift] + [display]" is displayed in the center of the screen.
Is displayed. This character display is an operation support display for guiding the user to shift to a screen for adjusting the brightness of the liquid crystal monitor 38 by continuously (or simultaneously) pressing the shift key 48 and the display key 50.

During the display of the shift guidance screen, no function is assigned to the cross key 44, so that the center display section 46C is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.
Only the main mode mark is displayed, and the upper / lower / left / right display sections 46U, 46D, 46L, 46R are not displayed.

When the shift key 48 and the display key 50 are pressed according to the guidance on the shift guidance screen, the brightness adjustment block 21 is displayed on the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38 as shown in FIG.
2 is displayed.

In the brightness adjustment block 212, small blocks 213 are displayed in the form of an indicator arranged in a line from left to right, and the number of displayed blocks indicates the degree of brightness. The left key 44L of the cross key 44 has a function of decreasing brightness (-), and the right key 44R has a function of increasing brightness (+). Correspondingly, the left display portion 44L of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 has a left arrow triangle. A right arrow triangle mark is displayed on the mark and right display section 44R.

When the left key 46L is pressed, the number of the blocks 213 increases and the brightness increases, and when the right key 46R is pressed, the number of the blocks 213 decreases and the monitor screen becomes dark. Up key 4
Since no function is assigned to the 4U and the down key 44D, the upper display section 46U of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46,
The lower display section 46D is not displayed. Also, the central display unit 46
A movie mode mark, which is the current shooting mode, is displayed on C, and characters indicating the recordable time are erased. In addition,
A special mark indicating that the brightness is being adjusted may be displayed on the center display section 46C.

When the left / right key R or R is operated and the menu / execute key 52 is pressed when the screen has an appropriate brightness, the brightness setting is determined. When the cancel key 54 is pressed, the change of the brightness adjustment is canceled, and the original setting is returned. Below the brightness adjustment block 212, operation guidance of “setting → [execute]” and “cancel → [cancel]” is displayed.

When the setting of brightness is completed by pressing the menu / execute key 52 or pressing the cancel key 54, the process returns to the standby state shown in FIG. 7B.

When the release button 30 is "fully pressed" and "S2 is turned on" in the standby state shown in FIG. 7B, movie recording starts as shown in FIG. 9A. At this time, recording time information 214 is displayed on the upper right of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38 in units of seconds.

The release button 30 also functions as a recording stop key, and when the release button 30 is pressed for the second time (S
At the time of (1 ON), the photographing ends, and the captured image is recorded on the memory card 120. During recording on the card, as shown in FIG. 9 (b), the characters "Saving to card" are displayed on the LCD monitor 38 screen.

At this time, a movie mode mark is displayed on the center display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, and upper, lower, left and right display sections 46U, 46D, 46L, 46R.
Is not displayed. When the process of writing (saving the image) to the memory card 120 is completed, the process returns to the standby state described with reference to FIG.

If the release button 30 is pressed again immediately after S2 is turned on (shooting is started) and S1 is turned on (end of shooting), recording for a predetermined minimum recording time is executed. For example, the camera 10 of the present embodiment records 10 frames per second, and is designed to record for at least 3 seconds in relation to a moving image index (25-screen multi-display) described later. When the memory card 120 reaches the recording limit during shooting, the recording is stopped and the automatic recording process is performed as it is.

Next, the operation in the manual photographing mode will be described.

Set the mode selection lever 42 to the "photographing mode".
When "manual shooting mode" is selected with the mode dial 32, the camera 10 is activated by a display as shown in FIG. 10 instead of the display contents of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 described in FIG. That is, on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, a mode mark composed of a combination of the letter "M", which represents the manual shooting mode, and a camera mark is displayed.

Below the mode mark, the standard number of recordable images, quality display (N indicates normal), and pixel number information (2400 is 2400 × 18)
00 is displayed. In this way, when the camera 10 is activated, a display indicating the camera state at the time of startup is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

When the image can be taken in the manual shooting mode, the screens of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 and the liquid crystal monitor 38 display as shown in FIG.

The center display 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 displays a mode mark indicating the manual photographing mode and the number of the standard number of recordable images. The upper display 46U has a zoom-up mark and the lower display 46D. , A zoom down mark, a macro mode mark on the left display section 46L, and a strobe mark on the right display section.

That is, the upper key 44U of the cross key 44 is a telephoto (telephoto) operation function of the optical zoom, the lower key 44D is a wide-angle (wide) operation function of the optical zoom, and the left key 44L is a macro for setting and canceling the macro mode. The flash mode setting function is assigned to the mode setting / cancellation function and the right key 44R.

FIG. 11A shows a state in which the macro OFF and the flash mode are set to the automatic light emission mode. When the left key 44L is pressed in this state, the macro mode is turned on, and the macro setting is turned on in the left display section 46L.
A mark indicating the state (see FIG. 29C) is displayed. Each time the right key 44R is pressed, the strobe mode cyclically cycles through "auto" → "red-eye reduction" → "forced flash" → "flash off" → "auto". Is changed (see FIG. 31).

At the upper left of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, mode information 216 of "manual shooting" is displayed, and below it, a macro mode mark, a self-timer mark, and a manual focus mark are displayed as necessary. An AF target mark 218 is displayed at the center of the screen, and a zoom bar 208 is displayed at the left side of the screen, so that the current zoom position can be visually grasped.

At the bottom of the screen, various setting states such as the setting state of the brightness of the liquid crystal screen, the setting state of the strobe light amount, the setting state of the white balance, and the ISO sensitivity setting state are displayed in order from the left. The frame number is displayed at the upper right of the screen.

When the angle of view is determined on the screen of FIG. 11A and the release button 30 is "half-pressed" (S1 on), the image is fetched and the screen changes to that of FIG. 11B. At this time, the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38 is frozen, and the AF processing and the AE processing are executed inside the camera. During the AF processing and the AE processing, the information “!
AF "is displayed, and thereafter, the display is replaced with"! AE ".

Next, the release button 30 is pressed "fully".
When (S2 ON), shooting for recording (image recording) is executed. When the preview is set to OFF, the image is stored in the memory card 120, and the process returns to the shooting standby state in FIG.

On the other hand, when the preview is set to ON, when the release button 30 is fully pressed (S2 on) in the state of FIG. 11B, shooting for recording (image recording) is executed, The preview display screen shown in FIG. At the upper left of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, information 220 indicating an operation state of "preview" is displayed, and at the bottom of the screen, operation guides of "record → [execute]" and "cancel → [cancel]" are displayed.

During preview display, the cross key 44
The upper key 44U is an enlargement key of the electronic zoom, and the lower key 44D
Is assigned to the electronic zoom reduction key. Correspondingly, the upper display section 46 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46
U indicates a mark that indicates the zoom function (+
), And a mark (a minus sign in the magnifying glass) indicating the reduced zoom function is displayed on the lower display portion 46D.

Of the cross keys 44, the left keys 44L and the right keys 44R to which no function is assigned have no display on the left display portions 46L and 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal.

In the state of FIG. 11C, the upper key 44U
When the user presses (or the down key 44D), the display image on the screen is enlarged (or reduced when the down key 44D is pressed) as shown in FIG. Also, although not shown in the figure, by simultaneously pressing the shift key 48 and any one of the cross keys 44 (44U, 44D, 44L, or 44R), the display range is moved (panning or (Tilting). When the menu / execute key 52 is pressed at a desired angle of view, the image of the currently displayed angle of view is stored in the memory card 120. In this example, an image having a screen ratio of 4: 3 is recorded.
The aspect ratio of the screen may be arbitrarily or selectively changed.

If the cancel key 54 is pressed in the screen shown in FIG. 11C or 11D, the screen returns to the manual shooting screen in FIG. 11A without executing the image recording processing. Depending on the setting, it is possible to record only the original image, or to record both the currently displayed angle of view and the original image.

As described above, since the zooming in / out and the display range can be moved during the preview, it is useful for confirming the focus at the time of the manual focus, and the photographed image can be trimmed and recorded on the spot. it can.

When the image is captured with the setting of 1280 × 960 pixels, the captured image has a size of 1280 and the SDRAM 8
2 and is developed and stored as YC data. When this is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38, the data that has been thinned out by the built-in buffer 76 and converted to the size of 640 is supplied to the VRAM 94. Therefore, even when the enlargement zoom processing is performed in the preview display, the image can be displayed without lowering the resolution.

In this embodiment, the preview image is configured so that enlargement / reduction and movement of the display range can be instructed. However, it is possible to instruct rotation of the screen or partial cutout of the screen by a free shape. May be.

When the menu / execute key 52 is pressed on the manual photographing screen shown in FIG.
The screen shifts to the shooting setting menu screen shown in FIG. The shooting settings menu includes brightness, strobe, white balance, IS
It has 8 items of O sensitivity, manual focus, metering pattern, sharpness, and preview display.
It is divided into pages and displayed. Left key 44L or right key 4
By 4R operation, “Preview display” ← → “Sharpness” ← → “Photometry” ← → “Manual focus” ← →
“Brightness” ← → “Strobe” ← → “White Balance”
← → 8 items of “ISO sensitivity” are sequentially switched.

As shown in FIG. 12, the first page is
"Brightness", "strobe", "white balance",
There are four items of “ISO sensitivity”, a menu bar 222 of these four items is displayed below the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, and a plurality of selection contents are prepared for each item.

In the item of "brightness", -0.6 to +0.6
The brightness can be set in 0.3 steps in the range of. In the item of "strobe", the brightness of the strobe can be set in 0.3 steps within a range of -0.6 to +0.6. In the item of "white balance", one of strobe, cloudy outdoor, sunny outdoor, and indoor can be selected. In the item of “ISO sensitivity”, one of 200, 400, and 800 can be selected.

When the setting item is set to the left key 44L or the right key 44R
And the setting contents are selected by the up key 44U or the down key 44D. After the setting contents are selected by the up key 44U or the down key 44D, the setting contents are determined by pressing the menu / execute key 52.

Menu balloon (submenu frame) 223 displayed in a popup when a menu item is selected
Are sequentially shifted from the left in accordance with the arrangement order of the menu items displayed at the bottom of the screen. The item of “ISO sensitivity” is the end of menu movement,
Menus do not cycle. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12D, when the item of "ISO sensitivity" is set, the right key 44R of the cross key 44 is invalidated, and the right display section 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 does not display. By setting frequently used items at the end of movement (moving end) without circulating the menu, it is possible to easily stop at the position of the item.

When the left key 44L is pressed on the "brightness" setting screen in FIG. 12A, the display shifts to the second page as shown in FIG. 13A. As shown in FIG. 13, the second page includes four items of “manual focus”, “photometry”, “sharpness”, and “preview display”, and a menu bar 222 of these four items is displayed below the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38.
Is displayed, and a plurality of selection contents are prepared for each item.

In the "manual focus" item, either manual focus ON or OFF can be selected. In the item of `` photometry '', average photometry that takes the entire screen as the photometry target and averages the entire screen, spot photometry that targets only the central part of the screen as the photometry target, or multiphotometry that divides the screen into multiple areas and performs photometry Any one of the photometric patterns can be selected. In “sharpness”, the degree of contour enhancement can be set in an appropriate range in the − direction and the + direction based on “0”. In the item of "preview display", either preview ON or OFF for whether or not to display a preview can be selected.

When the menu item is the left key 44L or the right key 4
Select with 4R, and change the setting contents with up key 44U or down key 44
Select with D. After the setting contents are selected by the up key 44U or the down key 44D, the setting contents are determined by pressing the menu / execute key 52.

The menu balloon 233 of each item displayed in a popup when a menu item is selected is sequentially shifted from the right in accordance with the arrangement order of the menu item display at the bottom of the screen. The item of "preview display" is the end of the menu movement on the second page, and the menu does not cycle. Therefore, FIG.
As shown in (1), when the item of "preview display" is set, the left key 44L of the cross key 44 becomes invalid, and the left display portion 46L of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 becomes non-display.

When the menu / execute key 52 is pressed on the shooting standby screen described with reference to FIG. 11A, the display screen of the setting menu of "brightness" is displayed by default (FIG. 12A, If the mode has not been switched by the dial 32 or the mode selection lever 42, the menu is entered from the menu left previously.

The shift key 48 is displayed when any of the screens shown in FIGS. 11A and 11C or FIGS. 12 and 13 is displayed.
By pressing, the shift guidance screen described with reference to FIG. 8 is displayed.

Next, the operation in the automatic photographing mode will be described.

Set the mode selection lever 42 to the "photographing mode".
When the mode dial 32 is set to "auto shooting", the camera 10 displays the contents shown in FIG. 14 instead of the display contents of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 shown in FIGS. 6B and 6C. stand up. That is, on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, a mark composed of a combination of a letter "A" symbolizing the auto shooting mode and a mark that stylizes the camera is displayed. The fact that the standard number of images that can be shot, the quality display, and the number of pixels are displayed together with this mode mark is as described with reference to FIG.

When the automatic photographing mode becomes ready for photographing, the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 and the liquid crystal monitor 38
Will be displayed as shown in FIG. In the shooting standby state in the auto shooting mode, the upper key 44U of the four-way controller 44 is used for a telephoto (tele) operation function of the optical zoom, and the lower key 4 is provided.
4D is a wide-angle (wide) operation function of the optical zoom, a left key 4
4L is assigned to a macro mode setting / cancellation function for setting and canceling a macro mode, and the right key 44R is assigned to a strobe mode setting function, and upper / lower / left / right display units 44U, 44D of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 are assigned. , 44L, 4
A mark indicating a function corresponding to each of the 4Rs is displayed. Also, the central display unit 4 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46
In 6C, a mode mark indicating the automatic shooting mode and the standard number of shootable images are displayed.

At the upper left of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, mode information 230 of "auto shooting" is displayed, and below it, a macro mode mark and a self-timer mark are displayed as necessary. An AF target mark 218 is displayed at the center of the screen, and when a zoom key (in this case, the up key 44U or the down key 44D) is pressed, a zoom bar 208 is displayed on the left side of the screen. The display of the zoom bar 208 automatically disappears when it is displayed for a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds) after the zoom key is pressed. In addition, the date display 206 automatically disappears after a predetermined period of time has elapsed (for example, three seconds later).

When the release button 30 is pressed (S1 on) on the auto photographing screen shown in FIG. 15A, a standby screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 15B. Here, when the release button 30 is further fully pressed (S2 on), the image recording operation is executed. When the photographed image is stored in the memory card 120, the state returns to the state of the automatic photographing screen in FIG. When the display key 50 is pressed on the auto shooting screen, the screen shifts to the shooting support screen as shown in FIGS.

The camera 10 has a photographing support function called a best framing display. this is,
An index line (best framing frame 232) serving as a guide for framing is displayed on the screen of the LCD monitor 38 in accordance with the photographing purpose.
That. ) Is displayed, and the photographer adjusts the angle of view while referring to the best framing frame 232 to obtain a photograph having a good composition.

FIG. 15C shows a state in which the best framing frame 232 suitable for landscape photography is displayed. When the shift key 48 is pressed on this screen, the function of the cross key 44 is changed, the up key 44U is a function of selecting a pattern of the best framing frame, the down key 44D is a self-timer setting function, and the left key 44L is a resize (pixel number change). The function and the right key 44R are each assigned a quality setting function. In accordance with such a function assignment, the upper / lower / left / right display units 46U, 46D, 46L, 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 are also switched to a predetermined mark display.

When the shift key 48 and the up key 44U are continuously pressed from the state shown in FIG. 15C, the display switches to the display of the best framing frame 232 suitable for the group photograph as shown in FIG. Function of Fig. 15 (a)
It will be in the same state as described in. When the shift key 48 is pressed on the screen of FIG. 15D, the function of the cross key 44 is changed as described with reference to FIG. 15C, and a person photographing as shown in FIG. The best framing frame 232 suitable for is displayed.

After the composition is determined using one of the photographing support screens shown in FIGS. 15C to 15E, the release button 30 is pressed.
Is pressed (S1 on), the standby screen shown in FIG. When S1 is turned on from the shooting support screen,
The best framing frame 232 is also displayed on the standby screen. Release button 3 on standby screen (b)
When “0” is “fully pressed” (S2 ON), a recording operation is executed, and an image is stored in the memory card 120.

When the display key 50 is pressed during any of the photographing support screens of FIGS. 15C to 15E, the photographing support function is exited and the screen returns to the automatic photographing screen of FIG. 15A.

Next, the reproduction mode will be described.

Set the mode selection lever 42 to the "reproduction mode".
When the setting is set to, the camera 10 stands up by a display as shown in FIG. 16 instead of the display content of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 described in FIG. 6B or 6C. That is, a mode mark of a right-pointing triangular mark representing the reproduction mode is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

When the camera 10 starts up in the playback mode,
The last image file (last captured image) in the memory card 120 is reproduced and displayed in one frame. FIG. 17A shows a reproduction display example in the case where the last image file is a still image file. At the upper left of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, mode information 236 indicating the reproduction mode is displayed, and at the upper right of the screen, information 238 of the frame number and the file name is displayed. The shooting date and time are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Further, on the right side of the screen, there may be a case where information of erroneous erasure prevention (image protection) setting and a mark indicating the presence or absence of print information are displayed as additional information of the image file.

At the time of one-frame playback, the up key 44 of the cross key 44
U is a command for enlargement zoom, the down key 44D is a command for reduction zoom, the left key 44L is for frame return, and the right key 44R is for frame advance. In response to this, the upper / lower / left / right display units 46U, 46 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 are displayed.
D, 46L and 46R have keys 44U and 44 respectively.
Marks indicating the functions of D, 44L, and 44R are displayed.
In addition, a mode mark indicating the playback mode is displayed on the center display section 46C.

When the up key 44U or the down key 44D is pressed on the screen of FIG. 17A, the reproduction screen is enlarged or reduced. For example, when the up key 44U is pressed, the image is enlarged as shown in FIG.
8 is displayed. At the bottom of the screen, an operation guide of "zoom movement → [shift] + [↑ ↓ ← →]" is displayed.

When the shift key 48 is pressed on the screen shown in FIG. 17B, the screen shifts to the shift guidance screen shown in FIG.
As described with reference to FIG. 8, the brightness of the liquid crystal monitor 38 can be adjusted according to the guidance. During the shift guidance, the cross key 44 is disabled, so that the upper / lower / left / right display units 46U, 46D,
46L and 46R are not displayed. In any of the screens of FIGS. 17B and 17C, pressing the cancel key 48 returns to the single-frame playback screen of FIG. 17A.

By simultaneously pressing the shift key 48 and any of the up, down, left, and right keys (44U, 44D, 44L, or 44R) in accordance with the operation guide shown on the screen of FIG. The display range can be moved without changing the zoom screen as shown in FIG. In this case, the up / down / left / right keys 44U, 44D, 44L, or 44R function as direction indicating keys for moving the display range, and the up / down / left / right display sections 46U, 46D,
At 46L and 46R, triangular marks indicating directions are displayed. A mark that indicates that the screen can be moved in parallel is displayed on the center display section 46C.

[0139] Also on the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, a triangular mark 240 indicating each movable direction of up, down, left and right is displayed, and a zoom bar 208 is displayed on the left side of the screen. If the user reaches the edge of the screen (for example, the left edge of the screen) by the operation of the zoom movement and cannot move any more,
As shown in (b), the display of the triangular mark indicating the direction disappears, and the display of the instruction key of the direction disappears on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46. This allows
The limit of screen movement can be easily recognized. Such a screen moving operation is the same as the preview screen moving operation described with reference to FIG.

When the cancel key 54 is pressed on the screen shown in FIG. 18 (a) or (b), the screen returns to the original size, and the screen shown in FIG.
To the single-frame playback display. If the shift key 54 is pressed during the single-frame playback display of FIG. 17A, the screen shifts to the shift guidance screen described with reference to FIG. 8, and the brightness of the monitor can be adjusted.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of the screen of the reproduced still image menu. When the menu / execute key 52 is pressed on the still image (single frame) playback screen of FIG. 17A, the playback still image menu of FIG. 19A is displayed. The menu has six items of "erase", "auto play", "resize", "protect", "DPOF", and "map reproduction", and a plurality of selection contents are prepared for each item.

At the bottom of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, a menu bar in which icons 250 indicating these items are arranged in a line is displayed. When an item is selected by the left key 44L or the right key 44R, a menu balloon 252 of a submenu is displayed. . The display position of the menu balloon 252 moves in accordance with the arrangement order of the icons 250 indicating the menu items at the bottom of the screen. The items “Erase” and “Map playback” are at the end of menu movement, and do not cycle from “Erase” to “Map playback” and “Map playback” to “Erase”.

A menu item is selected by the left key 44L or the right key 44R, and the setting content is selected from the submenu by the up key 44U or the down key 44D. Up key 44
After the setting content is selected by the U or the down key 44D, the setting content is determined by pressing the menu / execute key 52.

When the "erase" menu is selected as shown in FIG. 19 (a), the left key 44L of the cross key 44 becomes invalid, and the left display section 46L of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is displayed.
Is not displayed. Similarly, when the "map display" menu is selected in FIG. 19F, the right key 44R is disabled, and the right display section 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is not displayed. The menu items may be cycled. In this case, the left / right keys 44L and 44R are always enabled,
A display indicating the function is displayed on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

In the menu balloon 252 of “delete”,
"Format", "Erase All Frames", "Erase One Frame"
Includes two submenus. Up / Down key 44U, 44
Select submenu item with D and press Menu / Execute key 5
Press 2 to display a confirmation screen for executing each deletion.
By further pressing the menu / execute key 52 on the confirmation screen, the processing is executed. An image protected is not erased even if one-frame erase or all-frame erase processing is executed. In this case, after the image protection is released, one-frame erasure and all-frame erasure processing are executed.

“Auto play” is a mode in which image files in the memory card 120 are automatically reproduced one by one in order. However, in the case of a moving image file, the image of the first frame is reproduced as a representative image. In the item of "auto play", a wipe pattern at the time of screen switching can be set, and any of "no wipe", "wipe 1", "wipe 2", and "wipe 3" can be selected. A predetermined wipe pattern is defined for each of the wipes 1 to 3. In the item “Resize”, the number of pixels can be changed.
→ 1280 ”,“ 2400 → 640 ”,“ 1280 → 6 ”
40 "can be selected.

The “protect” submenu includes three selection items “all frame release”, “all frame protect”, and “single frame setting”. Up / Down key 44U, 4
When a desired item is selected in 4D and the menu / execute key 52 is pressed, a confirmation screen for executing the respective protect processing is displayed. By further pressing the menu / execute key 52 on the confirmation screen, the protect processing is executed. .

[0148] The submenu of "DPOF" includes "designate / cancel all frames", "confirm / cancel", "designate one frame",
Includes a selection item of “with date”. DPOF (Di
gitalPrint Order Format) is for memory card 1
20 For each image recorded on another recording medium, an instruction (print information) relating to the number of prints at the time of printing or print contents such as trimming is recorded on the recording medium as a print order file described in a determined parameter and format. Things. By preparing the printing order file in advance with a digital camera, a personal computer, or the like and recording it on a recording medium, it is possible to eliminate the need to specify the print content when ordering a lab or printing with a printing apparatus. In the "map reproduction", desired map data is selected from a plurality of map data, and the selected map can be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38.

Next, reproduction of a moving image will be described. When the camera 10 is started in the playback mode, the memory card 12
If the last image file of 0 is a moving image file, a movie reproduction standby screen as shown in FIG. 20A is displayed.

On the movie reproduction standby screen, the image of the first frame of the moving image file is displayed, a movie mode mark 260 is displayed at the upper left of the screen, and an operation display mark 262 is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Operation display mark 262
Are arranged from the left in the order of image frame rewind, rewind, reverse play, stop, pause, play, fast forward, image frame advance, and the color of the mark indicating the operation status according to the operation of the cross key 44 is changed. It changes to show the status.

The cross key 44 functions as an operation key for stopping the upper key 44U, playing / pausing the lower key 44D, returning the picture frame, and the right key 44R for moving the picture frame. Dot matrix liquid crystal 46 top / bottom / left /
Marks indicating the function of each key are displayed on the right display units 46U, 46D, 46L, 46R, and a movie mode mark is displayed on the center display unit 46C.

When the down key 44D is pressed on the movie reproduction standby screen shown in FIG. 20A, the reproduction processing starts. As shown in FIG. 20B, while reading the reproduction data from the memory card 120, the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38 temporarily becomes dark, and an hourglass mark 264 is displayed at the center.

When the reading is completed, the moving image file is reproduced as shown in FIG. During playback, the color of the playback mark 266 of the operation display mark 262 changes, and a time bar 26 indicating the progress of playback of the file is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
8 is displayed. Also, during playback of the moving image file, a triangle mark indicating that the moving image is being played is displayed on the central display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46. During movie playback, the up key 44U stops and the down key 44D plays /
Pause, the left key 44L is rewinded, the right key 44R is assigned a fast forward function.
Upper / lower / left / right display units 46U, 46D, 46L, 46
A mark indicating the function of each key is displayed on R.

During playback of the moving image shown in FIG.
Pressing 4U (stop key) stops the reproduction process and returns to the first frame. The video can be repeatedly played back from the beginning during playback.

During the reproduction of the moving image shown in FIG.
When 4D is pressed, movie playback is paused, as shown in FIG. At this time, the pause mark 2 of the operation display mark 262 at the bottom of the LCD monitor 38 screen
The color of 70 changes, and a pause mark is also displayed on the central display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46. During pause, the left key 44L of the cross key 44 functions as a frame return operation key and the right key 44R functions as a frame advance operation key, so that the left / right display sections 46L and 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 are provided.
Respectively, a predetermined mark is displayed.

When the shift key 48 is pressed on the pause screen, as shown in FIG. 21B, the direction of the triangular icon of the reproduction mark is inverted in the lower display section 46D of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, and is reversed to the lower key 44D. A function is assigned as a play key. Since the left key 44L and the right key 44R are invalid keys, the left / right display sections 46L and 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 are not displayed.

In the state shown in FIG. 21B, the down key 4
Pressing 4D starts reverse playback from the paused state. As shown in FIG. 21C, during the reverse reproduction, the color of the reverse reproduction mark 272 of the operation display mark 262 changes, and a triangular mark () indicating that the reverse reproduction is also being performed is displayed on the center display portion 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46. (Reverse playback mark) is displayed. During reverse playback, the left key 44
Since L functions as an operation key for rewinding and the right key 44R functions as an operation key for fast-forwarding, marks indicating functions are displayed on the left / right display sections 46L and 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

The shift key 4 during playback of the moving image shown in FIG.
When the shift guidance is called by pressing 8, movie playback is paused. Also, when the shift key 48 is pressed on the movie playback standby screen of FIG. 20A, a shift guidance screen is displayed, and the brightness of the monitor can be adjusted as described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an operation procedure of the reproduction moving image menu.

When the menu / execute key 52 is pressed during the standby for movie reproduction described with reference to FIG.
Is displayed. The playback video menu is
Includes three items: “erase”, “index”, and “protect”. At the bottom of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, a menu bar in which icons 280 indicating these items are arranged in a line is displayed. When an item is selected by the left key 44L or the right key 44R, a menu balloon 282 of a submenu is displayed. The display position of the menu balloon 282 is the icon 28
It moves in accordance with the arrangement order of 0s. “Erase” and “Protect” are at the end of movement, and “Erase” to “Protect” and “Protect” to “Erase” do not cycle.

For this reason, at the time of “erasing”, the left key 44L becomes invalid, and the left display section 4 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is displayed.
6L is not displayed (FIG. 22A). Similarly, at the time of “protect”, the right key 44R becomes invalid, and the right display section 46
R is not displayed (FIG. 22C). The menu items may be cycled, in which case the left / right keys 44L,
44R is always valid, and the dot matrix liquid crystal 46R
Indicates a function display.

The operation of selecting “erase” and “protect” is as described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 22 (b), when the "index creation" menu is selected, a submenu asking whether or not to execute index creation is displayed.

Up key 44U or down key 4 of the cross key 44
Select “Execute” by 4D and press Menu / Execute key 5
When 2 is pressed, an index image (referred to as a moving image index) as shown in FIG. 23A is displayed. As for the index image, a representative frame is extracted from the frame image in the moving image file at an appropriate time interval.
8 is displayed as a 5 × 5 reduced image of 25 frames.

The display format of the moving image index is 5 ×
The format is not limited to 25 25-screen multi-display, but may be a format such as 4 × 4 16-screen multi-display, 3 × 3 9-screen multi-display.

As a method for extracting a frame for an index picture from a moving picture file, for example, the relationship between the total number of frames in the moving picture file and the number of reduced images to be arranged in the index picture (in this case, 25) is used. The frame extraction ratio or the thinning ratio is calculated such that one frame is extracted or thinned out at approximately equal frame number intervals.

When the minimum recording time of a moving image is 3 seconds, and a moving image of 10 frames is recorded per second, a screen of 30 frames is acquired in 3 seconds. In order to reduce this to 25 screens and output it as an index image, it is necessary to remove 5 frames, so in this example, frames are thinned out at a rate of 1 frame out of 5 frames.

Further, if a moving image file contains an image of 100 frames, it is necessary to reduce the number of frames to 1/4 in order to reduce it to 25 screens and output it as an index image. A display frame is extracted according to the ratio. If the number of frames in the moving image file is other than a multiple of 25, extraction and thinning are appropriately combined to extract frames from the entire moving image file without bias and create an index image. By doing so, the contents of the entire moving image file can be easily grasped only by looking at the index image.

At the time of creating an index image, character information 286 "Creating an index" is displayed at the upper left of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, and a character "OK?" Also,
At the upper right of the screen, a file number 288 is displayed, and at the bottom of the screen, operation guidance such as “Save → [Execute]” and “Return → [Cancel]” is displayed. On the index creation screen shown in FIG. 23A, the cross key 44 is disabled, the movie mode mark is displayed only on the central display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, and the upper / lower / left / right display sections 46U are displayed. , 46D, 46L, and 46R are all blank.

When the menu / execute key 52 is pressed on the index creation screen (FIG. 23 (a)), the index picture is stored in the memory card 120 as a still picture file, and the reproduced still picture menu screen shown in FIG. 23 (b) is displayed. Transition.
That is, mode information 290 indicating the “play mode” is shown at the upper left of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, and “erase”, “auto play”, “resize”,
A menu bar on which icons 250 indicating menu items of “protect”, “DPOF”, and “map reproduction” are displayed. In addition, a triangular mark indicating that the image is a reproduction still image is displayed on the central display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, and the cross key 44 is displayed on each of the upper / lower / left / right display sections 46U, 46D, 46L, and 46R. A direction mark indicating each function is displayed.

When one of the keys 44U, 44D, 44L, 44R is pressed on the screen shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), a menu balloon 292 is displayed. Subsequent menu operations are as described with reference to FIG. Further, when a desired frame is selected from the index screen of FIG. 23B and the menu / execute key 52 is pressed, the reproduction of the moving image can be started from the selected frame. Further, on the screen of FIG. 23B, enlargement / reduction of the display screen and movement of the display range can be performed by the same operation procedure as that described with reference to FIG.

[0171] Link information for specifying the original image file of the reduced image in the index image is added to the image file of the index image. This link information may be information on the folder in which the file of the original image is stored and the file name, frame number information, the display position of the reduced image on the index image display screen, and the frame position in the moving image file. May be offset information for associating with.

[0172] Such link information is recorded, for example, as tag information in the Exif file format or the AVI file format.

By using the above link information,
When the position of a desired reduced image is designated on the index image display screen, moving image reproduction can be started from the screen in the moving image file corresponding to the designated position. Also,
Up / Down / Left / Right key 44 while pressing Shift key 48
When a desired reduced image is selected from the index images by pressing U, 44D, 44L, 44R, a screen related to the selection is called from the moving image file, and the screen is reproduced one frame.

When the index picture is stored in the memory card 120, link information for specifying the moving picture file on which the index picture is created is added to the index picture file, and Also, link information for specifying the file of the index image is automatically added. By using this link information, the corresponding moving image file can be called from the playback screen of the index image to execute the moving image reproduction, and the index image file can be opened immediately from the moving image file.

In this example, when a user performs a predetermined operation, an index image of a moving image file is created and recorded. However, when a moving image file is recorded by shooting a moving image, the index image is automatically created. Alternatively, this may be recorded on the memory card 120 as a still image file.

Next, some convenient functions in the reproduction mode will be described.

FIG. 24 shows a state at the time of fast forward in still image reproduction. In the normal single-frame playback screen shown in FIG.
L and 44R function as a frame forward key and a frame return key, respectively. On this one-frame playback screen, the left key 44
Hold down the L or right key 44R for a predetermined time or longer (for example,
When the button is pressed for 0.7 seconds), the mode shifts to the fast forward mode.

In the fast forward mode, as shown in FIG. 24 (b), reduced images (thumbnails) of three images are displayed in a picture-in-picture format at the bottom of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38, and the thumbnail display section is displayed. A playback bar 296 indicating the playback status is displayed above the 294. Left key 44
While the L or right key 44R is kept pressed, thumbnails are automatically displayed in the order of file numbers, and one thumbnail moves sequentially from left to right (from right to left in the case of fast rewind) in the thumbnail display section 294. It is sent out. Note that the thumbnail moves one frame at a time every predetermined time (for example, 0.2 seconds). The reduced image data is created by thinning out the number of data of the full-size image data, and is added to the storage file of the full-size image data.

The background of the screen stops at the one-frame playback image at the time of shifting to the fast-forward mode, and the image can be confirmed by fast-forward by displaying the thumbnail display section 294.
In the case of a moving image file, the reduced image of the first frame is displayed as a representative image. Note that the screen size of the moving image is 640 × 480, which is smaller than that of a normal still image file (for example, 1280 × 960), so that the size of the reduced image is also reduced to reflect this. . The reduced image indicated by reference numeral 298 in FIG. 24B is a representative image of a moving image file.

When the desired image comes to the center position of the thumbnail display section 294, the left key 44L or the right key 44L
When the finger is released from R and a predetermined time (for example, 0.7 seconds) elapses, the mode shifts to the reproduction mode of the center image. For example, the left key 44L or the right key 44 in the state of FIG.
When the finger is released from R, a moving image file represented by reference numeral 298 is selected, and as shown in FIG. 24C, the moving image file can be reproduced in full size. The playback procedure of the moving image is as described with reference to FIGS.

When the finger is released from the left key 44L or the right key 44R and before a predetermined time (for example, 0.7 seconds) has elapsed, the left key 44L or the right key 44R is depressed again, and the thumbnail is displayed. Frame advance or frame return is possible. Since three thumbnails are displayed and one thumbnail is moved from left to right (right to left in the case of return) as in this example, there is an advantage that a desired image can be easily found during fast forward. .

[0182] The thumbnail display section 294 is shown in FIG.
In addition to the mode formed at the lower part of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38 as described above, the vertical direction is formed at the left or right side of the screen so that the thumbnail is fast-forwarded while moving from top to bottom or from bottom to top. It may be. The number of thumbnails displayed on the thumbnail display section 294 is not limited to three, but may be any number of two or more.

FIG. 25 shows a state of fast forward in movie playback.

During standby for movie playback shown in FIG. 25 (a), the mode shifts to the fast forward mode by long pressing of the left key 44L or the right key 44R. As described with reference to FIG. 24, in the fast forward mode, thumbnails for three images are displayed at the bottom of the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 38 (FIG. 25B), and a playback bar 296 is displayed on the thumbnail display section 294.

While the left key 44L or the right key 44R is kept depressed, the thumbnail images are automatically displayed sequentially while moving from left to right on the thumbnail screen in order of file number. When the desired image comes to the center position of the thumbnail display portion 294, release the finger from the left key 44L or the right key 44R, and after a predetermined time (for example, 0.7 seconds) elapses, the reproduction mode of the center image is set. Transition. For example, when the finger is released from the left key 44L or the right key 44R in the state of FIG. 25B, a still image file corresponding to the thumbnail denoted by reference numeral 302 is selected.
As shown in (c), the still image file is reproduced in full size.

FIG. 26 shows an operation procedure for displaying a thumbnail. When the display key 50 is continuously pressed (double-clicked) twice during single-frame playback or movie playback standby in the playback mode, a list of thumbnails is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38 as shown in FIG. This is a list display of image files in the memory card 120 by thumbnails, and is displayed by a nine-screen multi-display in which a monitor screen is divided into nine parts of 3 × 3. In the case of a moving image file, the reduced image of the first frame is displayed as a representative image.

When the number of image files is so large that all thumbnails cannot be displayed on one screen, they are displayed on a plurality of pages. When switching pages, use the shift key 48+
Left / right keys 44L, 44R instruct page forward or backward.

When the shift key 48 is pressed on the thumbnail list display screen of FIG. 26A, a shift guidance screen shown in FIG. 26B is displayed. On the shift guidance screen, operation guidance for setting the brightness of the monitor and operation guidance for moving the page are displayed. At this time, the left / right keys 44L, 44R of the cross key 44 function as page shift instruction input keys, and marks indicating the page shift function are displayed on the left / right display sections 46L, 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46. .

When the shift key 48 and the display key 50 are pressed according to the guidance displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 38, the screen shifts to the monitor brightness setting screen as shown in FIG. You can adjust the brightness of the monitor by performing the operation.

From the shift guidance screen shown in FIG. 26B, the page can be moved by the shift key 48 + left / right keys 44L and 44R. For example, as shown in FIG. 27A, the page feed can be designated by the shift key 48 + the right key 44R, and the shift key 48 + the left key 44
L can be used to specify the return of the page ((b) in FIG. 3).
When the page is moved in the thumbnail list display, the center display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 may be set to no display, or a predetermined mark may be displayed.

Next, variations of display on the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 will be described.

When the setup mode is selected with the mode dial 32, a mark (character) indicating the setup mode is displayed on the center display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 40 as shown in FIG. At this time, the cross key 44 functions as an up / down / left / right cursor key for selecting items and setting contents of the setup menu. 46D, 46L, 46R
Are displayed with triangular marks indicating an instruction function in up, down, left, and right directions. If the up / down keys 44U and 44D of the cross key 44 become invalid depending on the situation, FIG.
As shown in (b), the upper / lower display units 46U and 46D become blinks.

When the continuous shooting mode is selected by the mode dial 32, when the camera 10 starts up, the mode mark 3 indicating the continuous shooting mode as shown in FIG.
02 is displayed. Eventually, when a state in which shooting is possible in the continuous shooting mode is performed, the display is switched to a display as shown in FIG. In the continuous shooting mode, the emission of the strobe light is prohibited, so that the right key 44R of the cross key 44 becomes an invalid key and the right display section 4 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46
No. 6 is not displayed. The left key 44L is assigned the function of a macro setting key, and a mark indicating the macro function and its setting state is displayed on the left display section 46L. The upper key 44U is an optical zoom tele operation key and the lower key 44D
Functions as a wide operation key, marks indicating the respective functions are displayed on the upper / lower display units 46U and 46D of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

FIG. 29B shows a state in which the macro mode is set to OFF. In this state, the left key 44
When L is pressed, the camera 10 is set to the macro mode.
The display is switched to that shown in FIG. 9 (c). Macro mode is O
By setting N, the AF scan range is shifted to the short distance side, and highly accurate focusing on a subject at a short distance becomes possible.

When the portrait mode is selected with the mode dial 32, when the camera 10 starts up,
As shown in (a), a display including a mode mark 304 indicating the portrait shooting mode is performed. Eventually, when it becomes possible to take a picture in the person photographing mode, FIG.
The display is switched to the display as shown in FIG. In the case of the portrait mode, since the setting of the macro mode is prohibited, the left key 44L of the cross key 44 becomes an invalid key, and the left display section 46 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 does not display. The right key 44R is assigned a function of a strobe setting key, and a mark indicating the strobe setting function and its setting state is displayed on the right display section 46R.

FIG. 30B shows a state in which the flash setting is set to the "auto mode". By pressing the right key 44R in this state, the flash mode can be switched. As shown in FIG. 31, every time the right key 44R is pressed from the state (a) of the “auto mode”, the “auto mode” (a) → the “red-eye reduction mode” (b) → the “forced light emission mode” (c) → "Flash off" (d) → "auto mode"
(A)... Are switched in a circulating manner. In accordance with the switching of the strobe mode, the display content of the right display section 46R of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is switched, and a mark indicating the setting state of the strobe mode is displayed (see FIG. 31).

When the landscape dialing mode is selected with the mode dial 32, when the camera 10 starts up,
A display including a mode mark 306 indicating the landscape shooting mode is performed as shown in FIG. Eventually, when it becomes possible to shoot in the landscape shooting mode, FIG.
The display is switched to the display as shown in FIG. In the case of the landscape shooting mode, the setting of the macro mode is prohibited, so the left key 44L of the cross keys is an invalid key, and the left display section 46L of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 does not display. The right key 44R is assigned a function of a strobe setting key, and a mark indicating the strobe setting function and its setting state is displayed on the right display section 46R.

When the night view shooting mode is selected with the mode dial 32, when the camera 10 starts up,
As shown in (a), a display including a mode mark 306 indicating the night view shooting mode is performed. Eventually, when it becomes possible to shoot in the landscape shooting mode, FIG.
The display is switched to the display as shown in FIG. Since the setting of the macro mode is also prohibited in the night scene shooting mode, the left key 44L of the cross keys is an invalid key, and the left display section 46L of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46 is not displayed. The right key 44R is assigned a function of a strobe setting key, and a mark indicating the strobe setting function and its setting state is displayed on the right display section 46R.

Next, a control example of maintaining and canceling the macro shooting mode setting of the digital camera according to the present embodiment will be described.

The camera 10 employs an autofocus method called phase difference AF.
The subject distance is calculated based on the integrated value of the high-frequency components of the image signal obtained from. In the case of normal shooting (shooting other than the macro mode), it is assumed that the subject is at a distance of about 80 cm or more, and the AF scan is performed in the range of 80 cm to ∞. The reason why the AF scan range is limited is to prevent erroneous distance measurement due to a pseudo peak and to speed up the AF time.

On the other hand, at the time of photographing in the macro mode, the AF scan range is shifted to
AF control is performed so that focus is achieved in the range of cm to 80 cm.

FIG. 34 is a table summarizing a situation in which the macro mode is held and a situation in which the macro mode is canceled in the digital camera of this example. The macro setting information is stored in the DRAM 152 or the EEPROM 130, and the setting contents are held / cleared according to the situation. As shown in the figure, when the system is reset in the macro ON state, the macro setting is cleared.

When replacing AA batteries or turning the power switch
When FF is performed, the macro shooting mode setting is cleared,
The next time the power switch is turned on, the camera 10 starts up with the macro turned off.

On the other hand, when the power is turned off by the auto power off function, the macro setting information is held. When auto power off is performed in the macro ON state, the macro ON setting is maintained at the next startup.

When the mode is changed from “photographing mode” to “reproducing mode” by operating the mode selection lever 42, the macro setting information is held. Therefore, the macro mode is maintained even if the operation is immediately switched to the reproduction mode after photographing in the macro mode, the photographed image is confirmed, and the operation is returned to the “photographing mode” again. Since there is no need to reset the macro settings every time the mode is switched, it is convenient to use.

In the photographing mode, the mode dial 32
When the shooting mode is changed by the user, the macro setting information is cleared. Change the shooting mode among "Movie shooting mode", "Continuous shooting mode", "Manual shooting mode", "Auto shooting mode", "Portrait shooting mode", "Landscape shooting mode", and "Night scene shooting mode" When this is done, the shooting conditions and shooting intentions change, so the macro settings are automatically cleared to prevent a situation in which the macro settings are mistakenly shot.

Further, the macro setting information is held by the switching operation of the menu display / non-display by the OSD, and the macro setting information is also held by pressing the cancel key 54.

As described above, once the macro mode is set, a macro release operation using the cross key 44 (left key 44) or an operation for ending macro photography (for example,
The macro mode is released only when the power switch 40 is turned off, the shooting mode is changed by the mode dial 32, etc., and the mode is switched to the power-off mode by the auto power-off function or the playback mode for checking the shot image. Sometimes macro settings are maintained. As a result, it is possible to satisfy both of the two requirements of convenience in using the macro mode and prevention of shooting in the unintended (incorrect operation) macro mode.

During the macro mode, the operation of turning off the liquid crystal monitor 38 by the display key 50 is invalidated, and the liquid crystal monitor 38 is turned on. In short-range shooting, the angle of view adjustment by the viewfinder 36 (optical viewfinder) tends to be inaccurate due to the influence of parallax, so checking the actual shot image through the LCD monitor 38 enables more accurate angle of view adjustment. Becomes Therefore, during the macro mode, the liquid crystal monitor 38 is not turned off even if the display key 50 is pressed.

Next, a mode in which the camera 10 is used by connecting it to a USB-compatible personal computer (not shown) will be described.

[0211] By connecting a USB cable to the USB terminal of the camera 10 of the present example, the personal computer 10
Remote control, and high-speed data transfer between the camera 10 and the personal computer. The USB cable has a four-core structure of a V bus line, a GND line, a data (+) line, and a data (-) line, and when +5 V is input to the V bus line of the USB terminal, the camera 10 automatically operates. Then, a USB mode (communication mode) is set. When the USB mode is set, a mode display (for example, a character display of “USB”) indicating that the USB mode is set is performed on the central display section 46C of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46.

When the remote control of the camera 10 is executed by the personal computer, a device driver having a command for controlling the camera 10 is set up in the personal computer in advance, and a predetermined control command is transmitted from the personal computer to the camera 10. The operation and processing of the camera 10 can be remotely controlled.

When the camera 10 establishes communication with the personal computer through the USB interface, the personal computer informs the personal computer that "vendor unique" information concerning the vendor name and device name and "camera control" (part of the Communication Device Class). Declare. The device driver of the personal computer controls the camera 10 based on the declaration information.

When the camera 10 is set to the “shooting mode”, items that can be controlled by the personal computer by the personal computer include zoom processing for changing the angle of view to be shot, brightness adjustment during shooting, and flash. This includes setting of light emission conditions of the light emitting device, white balance adjustment, shooting, recording of sound, setting of a recording state, and the like.

When transmitting image data and audio data from the camera 10 to the personal computer, the camera 1
After 0 establishes communication with the personal computer, it performs a predetermined transmission operation such as pressing a transmission button (also used by the menu / execution key 52) provided on the operation unit 162 of the camera 10. In response to the predetermined transmission operation, the CPU core 150 reads the specified image data and audio data from the memory card 120, converts the data into a predetermined data format, and transmits the data to the personal computer via the USB driver 158 and the USB terminal 160. Execute the processing to be performed.

When the camera 10 is set to the “playback mode”, the camera 10 is connected to a personal computer connected via the USB interface.
It is also possible to declare itself as a “mass storage class” and allow other devices to read and write information from and to the recording means 42. In this case, the other device (a personal computer or the like) recognizes the camera 10 as a “mass storage class”, that is, accesses the camera 10 as an external storage device. Information can be read and written.

When the camera 10 is set to the reproduction mode, when the camera 10 reproduces and displays an image, the camera 10 executes a process of reading image data and audio data from the memory card 120. Is set to a state in which writing of information from an external device (in this case, a personal computer) to the memory card 120 is prohibited, or information transmitted from the external device is buffered in a storage unit such as the DRAM 152 and reproduced. When the reading process for the data is completed, control is performed to record the buffered information in the memory card 120.

When an external device requests information reading from the memory card 120 during execution of the reading process for reproduction, the reading process from the external device is disabled or the time is set. Control is performed such that information is read from the memory card 120 with a shift.

Usually, a drive such as a floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, or a hard disk drive built in or attached to a personal computer is provided with an access lamp, and the operating state of the drive is indicated by the lighting state of the lamp. It has become so. It is desirable to add a means corresponding to an access lamp to the camera 10 connected via USB.

In the case of the camera 10 of this embodiment, the finder lamp 58 is also used as an access lamp. The finder lamp 58 is lit in green while the camera 10 is being accessed via the USB connection.

Note that, as an example of the display contents of the viewfinder lamp 58 other than the USB mode, in the shooting system mode, the green lighting state of the viewfinder lamp 58 means that the shooting preparation is completed (AE, AF completed), and the green blinking light indicates It means shooting attention such as camera shake warning.

The orange lighting state indicates that the memory card 12
During recording to 0, during self-timer operation, or during preview image display, blinking orange indicates that the flash is being charged. When any error occurs in the camera system, the finder lamp 58
Flashes red to warn the user.

The means attached to the camera 10 which can be used as the means corresponding to the access lamp include, in addition to the finder lamp 58, the self-timer lamp 18, the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, the backlight 106 of the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, the liquid crystal monitor. 38 and the like. Not only visual means, but also the fact that access is being performed may be notified by audio output from the speaker 184, and these means may be appropriately combined.

In the case where the liquid crystal monitor 38 is also used as a means for presenting access information, a message informing the communication status and information on the transfer time (the transfer time, the transfer end time,
It is also possible to display information such as estimated transfer time) or to display the image content being transferred on the liquid crystal monitor 38 when transferring an image from the camera 10 to the personal computer.

When using the battery, it is preferable to present the access information by means of low current consumption such as the viewfinder lamp 58 and the self-timer lamp 18. However, it is expected that an AC power adapter is often used when the USB is connected. When power is supplied from the outside, consideration of battery consumption is not necessary.
Only when the use of the AC power adapter is detected in step 8, the access information is presented by using a relatively large current consumption means such as the liquid crystal monitor 38 and the dot matrix liquid crystal 46, or by combining a plurality of means. The presentation of the access information may be performed.

By presenting the access information in the communication mode (USB mode in this example), the user can easily grasp whether or not the camera 10 is accessing the medium, and can record the recording medium during the communication. Erroneous operation such as removal of the key can be prevented. In addition, in order to avoid the inconvenience of inadvertently removing the memory card 120 during media access, in addition to displaying the access information, in response to the detection of the opening of the card cover, “NO. CARD (memory card not mounted)” Is programmed to return an answer for
During recording (writing), the program is programmed to immediately close the file in response to the detection of the opening of the card cover.

In the above description, an example in which the USB standard is used as the communication interface has been described. However, the application range of the present invention is not limited to this, and RS232C, RS-422, other wired communication interfaces, Bluetooth standards, and the like are used. The present invention can be achieved even by using a representative wireless communication interface.

In the above embodiment, an external recording medium (removable medium) that is detachable from the camera body is used as a recording medium. However, the recording medium may be an internal memory (or a built-in hard disk) built in the camera. . In this case, the image data stored in the internal memory is
It is output to the outside via a wired or wireless communication means (interface).

In the above description, an example in which data is exchanged between the camera 10 and the personal computer has been described. However, the device to communicate with is not limited to the personal computer, but a personal digital assistant (PDA) having a function similar to the personal computer. , An electronic device such as an image management device, an image search device, and an image information processing device.

[0230]

As described above, according to the electronic camera of the present invention, the viewfinder lamp and other means attached to the camera are also used as access information presenting means, and communication is being performed by a predetermined display or voice output during communication. Therefore, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation such as accidentally removing the medium during data transfer or medium access. Further, since it is not necessary to add a dedicated access information presenting means to the electronic camera body, cost reduction can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a digital camera to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the camera shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the camera shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a mode dial.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the digital camera of the present example.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in a moving image shooting mode.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in the moving image shooting mode.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in the moving image shooting mode.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in the moving image shooting mode.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a dot matrix liquid crystal at the time of startup in a manual shooting mode.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in a manual shooting mode.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in a manual shooting mode.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in a manual shooting mode.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a display example of a dot matrix liquid crystal at the time of startup in an auto shooting mode.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation procedure of the camera in the auto shooting mode.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a display example of a dot matrix liquid crystal at the time of startup in a reproduction mode.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure of a reproducing operation of a still image file.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure of a reproduction operation of a still image file.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a playback still image menu is switched.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure of a playback operation of a moving image file.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure of a playback operation of a moving image file.

FIG. 22 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a playback moving image menu is switched.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for creating an index image of a moving image file.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram of a fast-forward mode in a reproduction mode.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram of a fast-forward mode in a reproduction mode.

FIG. 26 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a thumbnail list display.

FIG. 27 is an explanatory view showing a page switching method of a thumbnail list display.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing a display example on a dot matrix liquid crystal in a setup mode.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing a display example on a dot matrix liquid crystal in a continuous shooting mode.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a display example on a dot matrix liquid crystal in a person photographing mode.

FIG. 31 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the strobe mode display is switched.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing a display example on a dot matrix liquid crystal in a landscape shooting mode.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing a display example on a dot matrix liquid crystal in a night scene shooting mode.

FIG. 34 is a table summarizing a situation in which the macro mode setting is retained and a situation in which the macro mode is automatically canceled in the camera of this example.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 camera (electronic camera), 18 self-timer lamp (information display means, access information presenting means), 30 ...
Release button, 32 mode dial, 38 liquid crystal monitor (image display means), 44 cross key (operation key), 46 dot matrix liquid crystal (information display means,
Function display section of operation keys), 58: finder lamp (information display means, access information presenting means), 66: CC
D (image sensor), 118: card interface (recording means), 120: memory card (recording medium), 132
... CPU block, 150 ... CPU core (control means),
176: external power input terminal (power input terminal), 178 ...
Battery detector (external power supply detecting means), 184: speaker (sound output means)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) // H04N 101: 00 H04N 5/92 HF term (Reference) 5C022 AA13 AB15 AB36 AB66 AC01 AC12 AC16 AC17 AC18 AC42 AC69 AC71 AC73 AC75 5C052 AA01 AA17 AB04 AC08 CC11 DD02 DD08 EE02 EE03 EE08 GA02 GA03 GA04 GA06 GA07 GA08 GA09 GB06 GB07 GB09 GC00 GD10 GE08 5C053 FA09 FA10 FA23 FA27 GB36 GB37 HA29 HA33 JA16 KA04 KA26 LA01 LA04 LA06

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic camera comprising: an imaging element; a recording unit that records an image captured via the imaging element; and a communication unit that can exchange information with an external device by wired or wireless communication. The electronic camera has at least one of an information display unit, an image display unit, and an audio output unit used at the time of shooting or reproduction, and the unit attached to the camera is configured to transmit information via the communication unit. An electronic camera, which is also used as access information presenting means for presenting access information indicating that the electronic camera is communicating during transmission and reception. 2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the means attached to the camera is at least one of a finder lamp, a self-timer lamp, a liquid crystal monitor, a function display section of operation keys, and a speaker. . 3. A means attached to the camera is an image display means for displaying a photographed image or a reproduced image. At the time of communication, a message indicating that communication is in progress, a message indicating that the image is being transferred, 2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein at least one of time information is displayed as the access information. 4. The electronic camera according to claim 3, wherein the electronic camera has a power input terminal and external power detection means for detecting whether or not an external power supply is connected to the power input terminal. An electronic camera wherein the image display means is used as access information presenting means when it is detected by means that power is supplied from the outside via the power input terminal.