JP2002330387A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic camera that can photograph an picture at an optional aspect ratio and record the picture. SOLUTION: An analog/digital converter section 3 outputs image data expressing an object image formed on a light receiving face of an image pickup element 2 by action of a focusing lens 1. A CPU 17 receives settings of longitudinal and lateral sizes of the image instructed independently of each other from an entry instruction acquisition section 23 and controls a resize processing section 7 to convert the sizes of the photographed image expressed in the image data into the instructed sizes. A compression processing section 10 compresses the converted image data expressing the photographed image according to the instruction and records the compressed data to a recording medium 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

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

[0002]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[0008]

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

In addition, in order to perform trimming processing on recorded image data, a PC and image processing software must be prepared as processing tools, and there is a financial burden for preparing these. Occurs. In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic camera that can capture and record an image with an arbitrary aspect ratio.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera which captures a subject image and obtains image data representing a captured image of the subject image, and a vertical and horizontal size of the image. Image size setting means for setting each independently, a conversion means for converting the size of an image represented by image data into a size set by the image size setting means, and the size converted by the conversion means The above-described object is achieved by providing a recording control unit that controls recording of image data representing a captured image on a recording medium.

According to the above arrangement, the image aspect ratio can be arbitrarily set by independently setting the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image to be recorded. The image having the adjusted aspect ratio is created and recorded on the recording medium.

In the above-mentioned electronic camera according to the present invention, the electronic camera further comprises a pixel number designating means for designating the number of pixels constituting the image in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction independently of each other. The means may be configured to set the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image based on the number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions specified by the pixel number specifying means.

According to this configuration, the size of the recorded image in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction can be set in units of the number of pixels, so that the user specifically desires to record an image with a specific image size. Useful if you have. In the electronic camera according to the present invention, the captured image represented by the image data obtained by the imaging unit is displayed, and when the size of the captured image is converted by the conversion unit, the image is not included. The image display device may further include an image display unit that also performs display for identifying the range of the captured image.

As described above, in a conventional method in which a work such as trimming is performed on a recorded image obtained by photographing in order to obtain an image having a desired aspect ratio after photographing, a desired method is used at the time of photographing. Since it is difficult to confirm the image at the aspect ratio, dissatisfaction may remain in the composition balance of the image after the trimming process.

On the other hand, according to the configuration described above, the user can recognize the range of the captured image that is not included in the recorded image at the time of shooting, so that the above-mentioned dissatisfaction can be resolved. At this time, the image display means constitutes a captured image represented by the ratio of the number of pixels in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction designated by the pixel number designating means and the image data obtained by the imaging means. The identification display may be performed when the ratio of the number of pixels in the vertical direction and the number in the horizontal direction is different.
The user can easily recognize that the electronic camera is set to record an image with an aspect ratio different from the usual one, and the trouble caused by performing the identification display until unnecessary is eliminated.

In the above-described electronic camera according to the present invention, the number of images that can be recorded with the free space remaining in the recording medium is calculated based on the size set by the image size setting means. You may comprise so that it may further have a number calculation means.

When the size of the image to be recorded is changed in the vertical and horizontal directions, the amount of image data representing the image changes. According to the above-described configuration, the user can know with high accuracy the number of images that can be recorded when shooting is performed with the current setting of the size of the recorded image.

[0018]

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

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

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

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

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

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

The compression processing unit 10 is a JPEG (Joint Photog)
A data compression process of image data by a method such as a raphic expert group is performed in accordance with a setting instruction from a user, and control for recording compressed (or uncompressed) image data on the recording medium 11 is also performed.

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

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

In response to a user's instruction to set the number of pixels, the display processing unit 14 translucents the upper and lower ends or the left and right ends of the image to be recorded on the LCD display 16. A halftone process is performed, which is a process that gives an effect that the image of the portion is seen through the screen over the screen. Details of the halftone process will be described later. In addition, the display processing unit 14 also performs image processing such as generation of character data for displaying various information such as operation setting display on the LCD display 16 and superimposition synthesis on another image in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 17.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FIG. 5E shows a case where the electronic camera reads a plurality of images of image data recorded on the recording medium 11 when the photographing operation setting is set as shown in FIG. 16 shows a screen when so-called index display is performed. As shown in (e), the image (index image) displayed on the index display screen is a reduced reproduction image of the entire display screen of the LCD display 16 shown in (d).

(F) is a through image display screen similar to (c), but when the through image is dark, that is, when the average of the luminance data of the pixels in the image data is small, the screen color is changed. And for example white or yellow,
A bright color such as pink is shown to improve the visibility of the presence or absence of the screen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In step S107, as shown in FIG. 2B or FIG. 2C, an instruction to perform image processing for superimposing and synthesizing the screen on the through image is issued.
And a composite image obtained by image processing performed in accordance with the instruction is displayed on the LCD display 16 as a through image. After finishing this process, the process returns to S101, where the process of combining the through image shown in FIG. 2A with the through image is performed, and thereafter, the above process is repeated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In S206, a photographing process for recording image data representing a subject image formed on the light receiving surface of the image sensor 2 on a recording medium is executed. In S207, AWB
And gives an instruction to the γ correction processing unit 6 so that AF / AE / AWB
An automatic white balance process based on the data acquired by the data acquisition unit 19 is executed. Then, after the photographing process ends, the process returns to S201, and the above-described process is repeated.

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

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

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

[0072]

As described above in detail, the electronic camera according to the present invention has an image pickup section for picking up an image of a subject and obtaining image data representing a captured image of the subject image; An image size setting unit that independently sets the horizontal size, a conversion unit that converts the size of the image represented by the image data into the size set by the image size setting unit, and a size conversion unit that converts the size. And a recording control unit that controls the recording of the image data representing the captured image on the recording medium.

With the configuration described above, in the electronic camera according to the present invention, the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image to be recorded are set independently, so that the aspect ratio of the image can be set arbitrarily. Then, an image having the aspect ratio is created from the captured image and recorded on the recording medium.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

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

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

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

[Explanation of symbols]

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

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Claims (5)

[Claims] An image capturing unit that captures a subject image to obtain image data representing a captured image of the subject image; an image size setting unit that independently sets a vertical size and a horizontal size of the image; Converting means for converting the size of the image represented by the image data into the size set by the image size setting means; and recording the image data representing the captured image whose size has been converted by the converting means on a recording medium. An electronic camera comprising: recording control means for performing control for causing the electronic camera to perform control. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a pixel number designating unit that independently designates the number of pixels constituting the image in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction in the image. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the size of the image in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction is set based on the number of the pixels in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. 3. A captured image represented by image data obtained by the imaging unit is displayed, and a range of the captured image which is not included when the size of the captured image is converted by the conversion unit can be identified. 3. The image display device according to claim 2, further comprising image display means for performing display.
An electronic camera according to claim 1. 4. The image display means constitutes a captured image expressed by a ratio of the number of pixels in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction designated by the pixel number designating means and image data obtained by the imaging means. 4. The electronic camera according to claim 3, wherein the identification display is performed when the ratio of the number of pixels in the vertical direction and the number in the horizontal direction is different. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a remaining number calculating unit that calculates the number of images that can be recorded in the free space remaining on the recording medium based on the size set by the image size setting unit. The electronic camera according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein