JP2001285685A - Digital camera and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital camera technology by which an image with a designated pixel number in response to the requirement of a photographer can be obtained. SOLUTION: The digital camera reads charges of all pixels of a CCD to acquire an image signal with a 1st pixel number and reads interleaved charges with respect to a pixel array of the CCD to acquire an image signal with a 2nd pixel number smaller than the 1st pixel number. Furthermore, a user can designate any of pixel numbers as to an image size of a photographed image. When a photographer desires consecutive shot, applying pixel interpolation processing to the image signal with the 2nd pixel number magnifies and converts the image with an image size of a designated pixel number. Moreover, when the photographer desires an image with high image quality, applying pixel synthesis processing to the image signal with the 1st pixel number applies reduction conversion to the image with a size of a designated pixel number. Thus, the image with the designated pixel number in response to the requirement of the photographer can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to digital camera technology, and more particularly, to an improvement relating to the number of pixels of a captured image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, instead of a conventional silver halide film camera, an optical image from a subject is converted into an electric image signal by an image pickup device, and each electric image signal is replaced with a magnetic disk corresponding to a conventional film or a removable disk. 2. Description of the Related Art Digital cameras for recording on a recording medium such as a simple card-type semiconductor memory have been put to practical use.

Further, as the number of pixels of an image sensor increases, a high-definition image can be obtained, and in response to a photographer's request,
2. Description of the Related Art Digital cameras capable of providing an image size having a smaller number of pixels than the number of pixels of an image sensor have been put to practical use.

[0004]

However, since the size of a captured image acquired by an image sensor having a large number of pixels is increased, the acquisition time of the captured image is lengthened, and the image is converted into an image having a designated number of pixels selected by the photographer. The image processing time for performing the operation becomes long. Therefore, when the photographer requests high-speed photographing such as continuous photographing, it is difficult to obtain an image having the selected designated number of pixels.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a digital camera technique capable of obtaining an image having a specified number of pixels according to a photographer's request.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital camera, comprising:
An image pickup unit that can selectively generate an image signal having a first pixel number and an image signal having a second pixel number smaller than the first pixel number; and (b) relating to a designated pixel number smaller than the first pixel number. Setting means capable of setting an image size; (c) first converting means for performing first image processing on the image signal having the first number of pixels to convert the image signal into an image signal having the specified number of pixels; (d) The second
Performing a second image processing on the image signal having the number of pixels and converting the image signal into the image signal having the designated number of pixels; and (e) selectively using the first conversion means and the second conversion means. Generating means for generating an image signal of the designated number of pixels by activating the image signal.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the digital camera according to the first aspect of the present invention, the image pickup means includes: (a-
1) continuous shooting means for continuously generating image signals for recording,
And, the generation unit, (e-1) if the acquisition interval of the image signal for the recording by the continuous shooting unit is shorter than a predetermined time interval, select the second conversion unit, Means for generating an image signal of the designated number of pixels.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the digital camera according to the first or second aspect, the digital camera further comprises (f) input means capable of performing a predetermined operation input, and e-2) The first operation is performed according to the predetermined operation input.
Means for selecting a conversion means or the second conversion means and generating an image signal of the specified number of pixels.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the digital camera according to any one of the first to third aspects, the first image processing is a pixel synthesizing process accompanied by a reduction in image size.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the digital camera according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the second image processing is a pixel interpolation processing accompanied by an increase in image size.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when the digital camera is installed in a microcomputer built in the digital camera, the digital camera can function as the digital camera according to any one of the first to fifth aspects. Recording the program.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <Main Configuration of Digital Camera> FIGS. 1 to 4 show a digital camera 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
1 is a front view, FIG. 2 is a rear view, FIG. 3 is a side view, and FIG. 4 is a bottom view. These drawings do not always follow the triangular projection, and the main purpose is to conceptually illustrate the configuration of the main part of the digital camera 1.

The digital camera 1 is, as shown in FIG.
It is composed of a box-shaped camera body 2 and a rectangular parallelepiped imaging section 3 (shown by thick lines). The imaging unit 3 is provided with a CC at a proper position behind the zoom lens with a macro function as an imaging lens.
An imaging circuit including a D (Charge Coupled Device) color area sensor is provided. In addition, similarly to the silver halide lens shutter camera, a dimming circuit including a dimming sensor 305 that receives the reflected light of the flash light from the subject and an optical finder 31 are provided at appropriate places in the imaging unit 3. .

On the other hand, inside the imaging section main body 3, the zoom
A zoom motor M1 for changing the zoom ratio of the zoom lens and moving the lens between the accommodation position and the imaging position, a motor M2 for focusing, and a motor M3 for adjusting the aperture
Are provided.

On the front surface of the camera body 2, a grip 4 is provided at an appropriate position at the left end, a built-in flash 5 is provided at an appropriate upper portion at the center, and a shutter button 9 is provided on the upper surface of the camera body 2. I have.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
A liquid crystal display (LCD: Liquid Crystal Displ.) For displaying a captured image on a monitor (corresponding to a viewfinder) and reproducing and displaying a recorded image, etc. in the approximate center of the back of the LCD.
ay) 10 is provided. A key switch group 26 for operating the digital camera is located below the LCD 10.
And a power switch 27. The left end of the power switch 27 is provided with an LE that is lit when the power is on.
D281, L indicating that a memory card is being accessed
An ED 282 is provided.

Further, on the back of the camera body 2, there is provided a photographing / reproduction mode setting switch 14 for switching between a "photographing mode" and a "reproduction mode". The photographing mode is a mode for photographing, and the reproduction mode is a mode for reproducing and displaying a photographed image recorded on the memory card 8 on the LCD 10. Shooting / playback mode setting switch 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a three-contact slide switch. For example, when the switch is set down, a shooting mode is set, when set at the center, a reproduction mode is set, and when set up, a menu mode is set.

A four-way switch 28 is provided on the right side of the back of the camera. When the buttons 281 and 282 are pressed, the zoom motor M1 is driven to perform zooming, and the buttons 283 and 284 are pressed. To perform exposure correction.

In FIG. 2, an LCD button 3 for turning on and off the LCD display is provided on the rear side of the image pickup unit 3.
Each time the LCD button 32 is pressed, the on / off state of the LCD display is switched. For example, when photographing is performed exclusively using the optical viewfinder 31, the LCD display is turned off for the purpose of saving power.
At the time of macro photography, by pressing the macro button 33, the focus motor M2 is driven, and the lens 301 enters a state in which macro photography is possible.

As shown in the side view of FIG. 3, a DC input terminal 29 is provided on the side of the digital camera 1.

As shown in FIG. 4, a battery filling chamber 18 and a card filling chamber 17 for the memory card 8 are provided on the bottom of the camera body 2, and the filling port is closed by a clamshell type lid 15. It has become so. In addition, the digital camera 1 uses a power supply battery E, which is formed by connecting four AA batteries in series, as a driving source.

<Functional Block of Digital Camera 1> FIG.
3 is a functional block diagram of the digital camera 1. FIG.

First, the internal blocks of the imaging section 3 will be described.

The CCD 303 converts the light image of the subject formed by the lens 301 into R (red), G (green), B (blue).
The image signal is photoelectrically converted into an image signal of a color component (a signal composed of a signal sequence of pixel signals received by each pixel) and output. This CC
In D303, the first pixel number 1200 × corresponding to all pixels
900 (1,800,000 pixels) of captured images can be obtained, and the second pixel number 40
A captured image of 0 × 300 (120,000 pixels) can be obtained.

The exposure control in the image pickup unit 3 is performed by controlling the aperture 302
And the amount of exposure of the CCD 303, that is, the charge accumulation time of the CCD 303 corresponding to the shutter speed is adjusted. If an appropriate aperture and shutter speed cannot be set when the subject contrast is low, an improper exposure due to insufficient exposure is corrected by adjusting the level of the image signal output from the CCD 303. That is, when the contrast is low, the exposure control is performed by combining the aperture, the shutter speed, and the gain adjustment. The level adjustment of the image signal is performed by the signal processing circuit 31.
3 in the gain adjustment of the AGC circuit 313b.

Timing generator (TG) 314
Generates a drive control signal for the CCD 303 based on a reference clock transmitted from the timing control circuit 202. The timing generator 314 includes, for example,
Integration start / end (exposure start / end) timing signal,
A clock signal such as a read control signal (horizontal synchronization signal, vertical synchronization signal, transfer signal, etc.) for the light receiving signal of each pixel is generated, and C
Output to CD303. Then, in the continuous shooting mode in which the subject is continuously shot, a drive control signal is transmitted from the timing generator (TG) 314 to the CCD 303 so as to shorten the time interval of image acquisition.

The signal processing circuit 313 performs predetermined analog signal processing on an image signal (analog signal) output from the CCD 303. The signal processing circuit 313
DS (correlated double sampling) circuit 313a and AGC
(Auto gain control) circuit 313b,
The noise of the image signal is reduced by the CDS circuit 313a, and the level of the image signal is adjusted by adjusting the gain by the AGC circuit 313b.

The light control circuit 304 controls the light emission amount of the built-in flash 5 in flash photography to a predetermined light emission amount set by the overall control unit 211. In flash photography, the reflected light of flash light from the subject is received by the light control sensor 305 at the same time as the start of exposure, and when the amount of received light reaches a predetermined light emission amount, the light control circuit 3
From 04, the light emission stop signal STP is output from the FL control circuit provided in the control unit. Flash control circuit 217
Stops the light emission of the built-in flash 5 in response to the light emission stop signal STP, whereby the light emission amount of the built-in flash 5 is controlled to a predetermined light emission amount.

Next, the internal blocks of the camera body 2 will be described.

In the camera body 2, an A / D converter 205 converts each pixel signal of the image signal into a 10-bit digital signal. The A / D converter 205
Each pixel signal (analog signal) is set to 1 based on an A / D conversion clock input from the timing control circuit 202.
It is converted into a 0-bit digital signal.

In the camera body 2, a reference clock,
A timing control circuit 202 that generates a clock for the timing generator 314 and the A / D converter 205 is provided. The timing control circuit 202 is controlled by the overall control unit 211.

The black level correction circuit 206 corrects the A / D converted pixel signal (hereinafter, pixel data) to a reference black level. Further, the WB circuit 207 adjusts R, R so that the white balance is also adjusted after the γ correction.
The level conversion of the pixel data of each of the G and B color components is performed. The WB circuit 207 converts the level of the pixel data of each of the R, G, and B color components using the level conversion table input from the overall control unit 211. The conversion coefficient (gradient of the characteristic) of each color component in the level conversion table is set by the overall control unit 211 for each photographed pixel.

The gamma correction circuit 208 corrects gamma characteristics of pixel data. The image memory 209 is a memory that stores the pixel data output from the gamma correction circuit 208. The image memory 209 has a storage capacity for one frame. That is, the image memory 209 stores the CCD3
When 03 has n rows and m columns of pixels, it has a storage capacity for pixel data of n × m pixels, and each pixel data is stored in a corresponding pixel position.

The VRAM 210 is a buffer memory for image data reproduced and displayed on the LCD 10. VRAM2
Reference numeral 10 has a storage capacity of image data corresponding to the number of pixels of the LCD 10.

In the photographing mode, in the photographing standby state, the A / D converters 205 to γ correction circuit 208 perform predetermined signal processing on each pixel data of the image photographed by the photographing unit 3 at predetermined intervals. After that, while being stored in the image memory 209, the VRA
The data is transferred to M210 and displayed on the LCD 10 (live view display). Thereby, the photographer can visually recognize the subject image from the image displayed on the LCD 10. In the reproduction mode, the image read from the memory card 8 is subjected to predetermined signal processing by the overall control unit 211, then transferred to the VRAM 210, and reproduced and displayed on the LCD 10.

The card I / F 212 is an interface for writing image data to the memory card 8 and reading image data.

The flash control circuit 217 is a circuit for controlling light emission of the built-in flash 5. The flash control circuit 217 controls the presence / absence of light emission of the built-in flash 5, the amount of light emission, the light emission timing, and the like based on the control signal of the overall control unit 211, and based on the light emission stop signal STP input from the dimming circuit 304. 5 is controlled.

The RTC 219 is a clock circuit for managing the shooting date and time. It is driven by another power source (not shown).

The operation section 250 is provided with the various switches and buttons described above.

The shutter button 9 is a two-stage switch capable of detecting a half-pressed state (S1) and a depressed state (S2) as employed in a silver halide camera.
When the shutter button 9 is half-pressed (S1) in the standby state, the captured image from the CCD 303 is transferred to the overall control unit 211.
, And the overall control unit 211 obtains contrast information of the captured image. The lens 301 is driven by the AF motor M2. Further, the same operation as described above is performed at least twice or more, the obtained two or more pieces of contrast information are compared, and the AF motor M2 is driven so as to move the lens 301 in a direction to obtain a higher contrast image. Is done. By repeating this operation, the lens 301 is moved to the in-focus position and AF is performed.

The overall control unit 211 is composed of a CPU, and controls the driving of each member in the image pickup unit 3 and the camera main unit 2 in an organic manner to control the photographing operation of the digital camera 1 overall. . Note that, in the drawing, dotted arrows are shown for the sake of convenience in order to show the flow of image data, and in reality, image data is sent for each block via the overall control unit 211. A work memory 211a composed of a DRAM and a flash ROM 211b for storing programs. The flash ROM 211b stores program data recorded on a memory card 8 as a recording medium in a card I / F.
212 can be stored. Thus, the stored program can be reflected on the operation of the digital camera 1.

The overall control unit 211 includes an exposure calculation unit, and calculates the shutter speed (SS) and the aperture 302 according to a program based on the contrast of the subject.

In the photographing mode, when the photographing is instructed by the shutter button 9 in the photographing mode, the overall control unit 211 displays the thumbnail image of the image taken into the image memory 209 after the photographing instruction and the compression ratio set by the compression ratio setting switch 12. , A compressed image compressed by the JPEG method is generated, and tag information (frame number, exposure value, shutter speed, compression ratio, shooting date, flash on / off data at the time of shooting, scene information, image determination) regarding the shot image is generated. Both images are stored in the memory card 8 together with information such as results).

Each frame of the image recorded by the digital camera 1 includes a tag portion, high-resolution image data (1600 × 1200 pixels) compressed in JPEG format, and image data for thumbnail display (80 × 60 pixels). Is recorded. The capacity of the image data for one file is about 1 MB.

When the photographing / reproduction mode setting switch 14 is set to the reproduction mode, the image data having the largest frame number in the memory card 8 is read out, and
The data is expanded by the reproduced image generation unit 211h in the data transfer unit 11 and transferred to the VRAM 210, thereby
On the CD 10, an image having the highest frame number, that is, an image photographed most recently is displayed.

<Regarding the Number of Pixels of Image> The digital camera 1 can record a picked-up image acquired by the CCD 303 from the following four types of pixels. The number of these images can be selected by a predetermined switch operation in the key switch group 26.

(1) 1200 × 900 pixels (1.08 million pixels) (2) 800 × 600 pixels (480,000 pixels) (3) 640 × 480 pixels (300,000 pixels) (4) 400 × 300 pixels (120,000 pixels) Here, the number of images of (1) is equal to the first number of pixels corresponding to the total number of pixels of the CCD 303 described above, and the number of images of (4) is
It is equal to the above-mentioned second pixel number smaller than the first pixel number. Hereinafter, the captured image of the first number of pixels is referred to as CCD3.
A description will be given of all-pixel reading obtained at step S03 and thinning-out reading at which a picked-up image of the second number of pixels is obtained by the CCD 303.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining all-pixel reading and thinning-out reading of the CCD 303. FIG. 6 (a)
6 shows an example of a pixel pattern in the case of all-pixel reading, and FIG. 6B shows an example of a pixel pattern in the case of thinning-out reading.

In the all-pixel reading, as shown in FIG. 6A, all the pixels PL (shaded portion) are provided for the pixel array 303a of the CCD 303 composed of R, G, and B pixels.
Is obtained.

In the thinning-out reading, as shown in FIG. 6B, the pixel array 303a of the CCD 303 is 1/9
The information of the pixel PL (shaded portion) is obtained so as to be thinned by the ratio of. This thinning-out reading makes it possible to shorten the acquisition time of a captured image as compared with all-pixels reading, thereby facilitating continuous shooting and the like.

Next, generation of an image having the above-described number of pixels will be described.

For the images (2) and (3), pixel data is generated in consideration of surrounding pixel data, thereby reducing the image size of the captured image of the first number of pixels. Generated by processing. This pixel synthesis is performed by, for example, a bicubic method or a nearest neighbor method. This first image processing is performed by the overall control unit 211. Here, since reduction processing is performed from image data having a large amount of information, a certain amount of processing time is required, but a high-quality image with reduced influence of noise can be obtained.

For the images (2) and (3), the image size is enlarged for the captured image of the second number of pixels by pixel interpolation in which pixels are interpolated in consideration of peripheral pixel data. It can also be generated by two-image processing.
This pixel interpolation is performed by, for example, the bicubic method or the nearest neighbor method. This second image processing is performed by the overall control unit 211. In this case, it is difficult to obtain a high-quality image because the enlargement process is performed from image data having a small amount of information. However, since the original captured image can be obtained at high speed by thinning-out reading, a predetermined number of images can be obtained. Can be obtained quickly. In addition,
Regarding the image of (4), the captured image of the second number of pixels can be used as it is without performing image size conversion.

<Operation of Digital Camera 1> FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the basic operation of the digital camera 1.

In step ST1, it is determined whether the live view has been set, that is, whether the LCD button 32 has been pressed and the live view mode has been set. Here, when the live view is set, the process proceeds to step ST2, and when the live view is not set, the process proceeds to step ST3.

In step ST 2, the TG 314 sends a drive control signal for live view to the CCD 303.
Is set, and a live view display is performed on the LCD 10.

In step ST3, the number of pixels of the image is selected from the four types of pixels by operating the switch group 26.

In step ST4, it is determined whether the continuous shooting mode is to be selected. This selection is performed by operating a predetermined switch of the switch group 26. Here, when the continuous shooting mode is selected, the process proceeds to step ST8, and when the continuous shooting mode is not selected, the process proceeds to step ST5.

In step ST5, a single photographing (single photographing) mode is set.

In step ST6, it is determined whether or not the thinning-out reading is selected. Here, LCD1
At 0, the screen display shown in FIG. 8 is performed, and the underline UL is moved up and down by operating the switches of the switch group 26, so that thinning-out reading or all-pixel reading is selected. Here, when thinning-out reading is selected, the process proceeds to step ST7, and when thinning-out reading is not selected, the process proceeds to step ST9.

In step ST7, the setting for the thinning-out reading is performed.

In step ST8, the continuous shooting mode is set.

In step ST9, the above-described setting for all-pixel reading is performed.

In step ST10, it is determined whether the shutter button 9 has been half-pressed (S1). Here, when the button is half-pressed, the process proceeds to step ST11. When the button is not half-pressed, the process proceeds to step ST1.

In step ST11, AE control is performed.
That is, the shutter speed and the aperture 302 are set based on the contrast information of the subject.

At step ST12, an AF operation is performed.
That is, based on the captured image from the CCD 303, the AF
The lens M1 is driven by the motor M2, and the lens 301 is moved to a focus position to perform AF.

In step ST13, it is determined whether the shutter button 9 has been fully pressed (S2). Here, when it is fully pressed, the process proceeds to step ST14, and when it is not fully pressed, the process proceeds to step ST11.

In step ST14, actual photographing is performed. The operation of the main shooting will be described below.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the operation relating to the actual photographing.

In step ST21, the number of pixels of the image is 1
It is determined whether 200 × 900 is set. If the number of pixels is set to 1200 × 900, the process proceeds to step ST30, where the number of pixels is set to 1200 × 90.
If it is not set to 0 pixel, step ST22
Proceed to.

In step ST22, it is determined whether the single shooting mode is set. Here, in the case of the single shooting mode, the process proceeds to step ST24, and in the case of not the single shooting mode, the process proceeds to step ST23.

In step ST23, it is determined whether or not thinning-out reading is set. If the setting is for thinning-out reading, the process proceeds to step ST24. If the setting is not for thinning-out reading, the process proceeds to step ST3.
Go to 0.

In step ST 24, the timing generator (TG) 314 is set to thin-out reading, and a control signal for thin-out reading is output to the CCD 303.

In step ST25, photographing is performed by thinning-out reading. That is, a captured image is acquired with 400 × 300 pixels. As a result, even in the continuous shooting mode,
It is possible to obtain a captured image at high speed.

In step ST26, in step ST25
The signal processing circuit 313 and the A / D conversion unit 205 perform predetermined processing on the captured image acquired in step (1), and store it in the image memory 209.

In step ST27, the number of pixels of the image is 4
It is determined whether 00 × 300 is set. here,
If the number of pixels is set to 400 × 300, the process proceeds to step ST29 because image size conversion is not required. As described above, when the number of pixels of the captured image acquired by the CCD 303 is equal to the number of pixels of the image selected in step ST3, the image processing of size conversion is not performed. If the number of pixels is not set to 400 × 300, the process proceeds to step ST28.

In step ST28, the captured image is enlarged to the image size of the number of pixels selected in step ST3 by the above-described pixel interpolation to generate an image.

In step ST29, the photographing ends.
That is, the captured image is stored in the memory card 8 in step ST3.
The image is recorded with the image size of the number of pixels selected in step (1).

In step ST30, the timing generator (TG) 314 is set to read all pixels, and a control signal for reading all pixels is output to the CCD 303.

In step ST31, photographing is performed by reading all pixels. That is, a captured image is acquired with an image size of 1200 × 900 pixels.

In step ST32, step ST31
The signal processing circuit 313 and the A / D conversion unit 205 perform predetermined processing on the captured image acquired in step (1), and store it in the image memory 209.

In step ST33, the number of pixels of the image is one.
It is determined whether 200 × 900 is set. Here, if the number of pixels is set to 1200 × 900 pixels, it is not necessary to convert the image size, so that step S
Proceeding to T29, if the number of pixels is not set to 1200 × 900, the process proceeds to step ST34.

In step ST34, the captured image is reduced to the image size of the number of pixels selected in step ST3 by the above-described pixel synthesis to generate an image.

According to the operation of the digital camera 1 described above, in the case of high-speed shooting such as continuous shooting, an image having a designated number of pixels can be obtained quickly because a shot image acquired by thinning-out reading is used. When it is desired to obtain the image, an image having the designated number of pixels can be obtained with high quality because the captured image obtained by reading all the pixels is used. As a result, it is possible to obtain an image having the designated number of pixels according to the photographer's request.

<Modifications> In the above embodiment, when the digital camera can shoot a moving image, the captured image acquired in the thinning mode is reduced to a predetermined image size by pixel interpolation similarly to the above-described continuous shooting. You may make it convert.

Regarding the acquisition of images of two types of pixels in the above embodiment, it is not essential to use all-pixel reading and thinning-out reading for one CCD, and it is possible to use two CCDs having different numbers of pixels. good.

In the above embodiment, thinning-out reading is always performed in the case of continuous shooting. However, in the case where the continuous shooting speed can be set, the time interval at which a captured image can be obtained by reading all pixels is set. In the case of continuous shooting with a short period, thinning-out reading may be performed.

Regarding the selectable image size in the above embodiment, it is not essential that the image size be larger than the image size that can be obtained by thinning-out reading, but may include an image size smaller than this. This image size is obtained by reducing and interpolating a captured image obtained by thinning-out reading.

[0089]

As described above, according to the first to sixth aspects of the present invention, the image signal of the first number of pixels is subjected to the first image processing or the second image signal having the number of pixels smaller than the first number of pixels.
An image signal having a designated number of pixels can be generated by performing the second image processing on the image signal having the number of pixels. As a result, it is possible to obtain an image having the designated number of pixels according to the photographer's request.

In particular, according to the second aspect of the present invention, when the acquisition interval of the image signal for recording is shorter than a predetermined time interval, the second conversion means is selected to generate the image signal of the designated number of pixels. Therefore, it can support high-speed shooting such as continuous shooting.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the first conversion unit and the second conversion unit are selected in accordance with a predetermined operation input to generate an image signal of a designated number of pixels. A satisfactory image can be obtained.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the first image processing is a pixel synthesizing process accompanied by a reduction in image size, an image having the first number of pixels can be appropriately converted into an image having the specified number of pixels.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the second image processing is a pixel interpolation processing accompanied by an enlargement of the image size, an image having the second number of pixels can be appropriately converted into an image having the specified number of pixels.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a main configuration of a digital camera 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a main configuration of the digital camera 1. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a main configuration of the digital camera 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a main configuration of the digital camera 1.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of the digital camera 1.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining all-pixel reading and thinning-out reading with respect to a CCD 303;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a basic operation of the digital camera 1.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a selection screen for thinning-out reading and all-pixel reading in single-shot mode.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation related to main imaging.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 digital camera 9 shutter button 10 liquid crystal display (LCD) 211 overall control unit 301 lens 302 aperture 303 CCD 303a CCD pixel array

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) // H04N 5/335 H04N 101: 00 H04N 101: 00 5/91 J F term (reference) 2H054 AA01 5C022 AA13 AB12 AB15 AB17 AB20 AB28 AB66 AC02 AC03 AC11 AC12 AC22 AC32 AC42 AC52 AC69 AC73 AC74 AC78 5C024 BX01 DX01 DX04 EX34 GY01 HX14 HX23 HX60 5C052 AA17 CC20 DD02 EE08 GA02 GA03 GA06 GA07 GB06 GB09 GC01 GC03 GC05 GD03 GD09 FA08 GB04 GB36 HA30 JA21 JA22 KA03 KA08 KA24 LA06

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera, comprising: (a) imaging means capable of selectively generating an image signal of a first pixel number and an image signal of a second pixel number smaller than the first pixel number; b) setting means capable of setting an image size related to a specified number of pixels smaller than the first number of pixels; (c) performing first image processing on the image signal of the first number of pixels, (D) second converting means for performing a second image process on the image signal having the second number of pixels and converting the image signal into an image signal having the specified number of pixels; A digital camera comprising: a generation unit configured to selectively activate the first conversion unit and the second conversion unit to generate an image signal having the specified number of pixels. 2. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the imaging unit includes: (a-1) a continuous shooting unit that continuously generates an image signal for recording; (e-1) when the interval of obtaining the image signal for recording by the continuous shooting unit is shorter than a predetermined time interval,
Means for selecting a conversion means and generating an image signal of the designated number of pixels. 3. The digital camera according to claim 1, further comprising: (f) an input unit capable of performing a predetermined operation input, wherein the generation unit includes: (e-2) the predetermined operation Means for selecting the first conversion means or the second conversion means according to an input and generating an image signal of the specified number of pixels. 4. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the first image processing is a pixel synthesis processing accompanied by a reduction in image size. 5. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the second image processing is a pixel interpolation processing accompanied by an increase in an image size. 6. A program for causing a digital camera to function as the digital camera according to claim 1 by being installed in a microcomputer built in the digital camera. A computer-readable recording medium characterized by the above-mentioned.