JP2003287788A - Camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform macrophotographing in which the photographing intention of a photographer is reflected. <P>SOLUTION: The camera is provided with a plurality of light emitting elements 8R, 8G and 8B arranged in a ring-shaped state at the tip end part of the lens barrel of a photographing lens, an emitted light quantity adjusting means to respectively independently set the emitted light quantity of respective light emitting elements 8R, 8G and 8B and a control means to perform the macrophotographing by turning on the respective light emitting elements 8R, 8G and 8B so as to obtain the emitted light quantity set by the emitted light quantity adjusting means. Thus, a shadow is added to an object and the color of the object is changed at the macrophotographing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera provided with a light emitting element for close-up photography illumination at the tip of a lens barrel in addition to a flash lamp.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a macroscopic image of a subject at a short distance of, for example, 70 cm or less is taken with a camera, when a normal flash lamp is emitted to take an image, the shadow of the lens barrel due to the flash light is reflected in the image taking screen. It may happen. Further, since there is a parallax between the lens barrel and the flash lamp, uneven light distribution may occur. Therefore, in a conventional camera, as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-46430, a ring-shaped light emitting device for close-up photography illumination is attached to the tip of the lens barrel so that the shadow of the lens barrel appears. I try not to be crowded.

[0003]

When a conventional camera shoots a macroscopic image of a subject at a close range, the light emitting device for close-up photography illumination illuminates the subject. However, since the conventional light emitting device for close-up photography illumination has a constant amount of emitted light and a constant color of emitted light, a shadow is cast on the subject depending on the photographer's intention to photograph, or the hue of the subject is determined by the photographer. There is a problem in that it cannot be adjusted according to the intention, and is insufficient for a photographer who likes macro photography to satisfy the demand.

An object of the present invention is to provide a camera equipped with a light emitting element for close-up photography illumination, which is capable of sufficiently reflecting the photographer's photography intention when performing macro photography.

[0005]

A camera which achieves the above-mentioned object is configured such that a plurality of light emitting elements arranged in a ring shape at a tip of a lens barrel of a photographing lens and a light emitting amount of each of the light emitting elements are independently provided. The light emitting device is characterized by comprising a light emitting light amount adjusting means for setting and a control means for turning on each of the light emitting elements with the light emitting light amount set by the light emitting light amount adjusting means to perform macro photography. With this configuration, the amount of light emitted from the light emitting element can be adjusted for each arrangement position of the light emitting element, and in macro photography, a subject can be shaded as intended by the photographer.

[0006] Preferably, a plurality of sets of light emitting elements are arranged in a ring shape at the tip of the lens barrel, with one set consisting of a red light emitting element, a green light emitting element and a blue light emitting element, and the emitted light amount adjusting means. Is characterized in that the amount of emitted light is set for each light emitting element of each set. With this configuration, it is possible to adjust the tint of the illumination light during macro photography as the photographer intended.

More preferably, the means for adjusting the amount of emitted light is
When the amount of light emitted from each light emitting element is not manually set, the amount of light emitted from each light emitting element is set to a default value. With this configuration, when the amount of emitted light is not manually set, macro shooting is performed with the amount of emitted light at the default value, and there is no chance that shooting will fail.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of the front side of a camera in which a light emitting element for close-up photography illumination according to an embodiment of the present invention is integrally mounted. The illustrated example shows a state in which the lens barrel is extended for photographing and the flash lamp pops up. In this compact camera 1, a flash lamp 2 is mounted in the camera body in the right shoulder corner when viewed from the front, and a lens barrel 3 accommodating a photographing lens is provided in the central portion. ing.

The lens barrel 3 is retracted into the camera body when the power of the camera 1 is turned off, and the front surface of the taking lens is protected by a lens barrier (not shown). The state shown in 1 is obtained.

An AF sensor 4 for automatic focusing, a photometric sensor 5, and a window 6 for a finder are provided above the lens barrel 3 of the camera body, which is provided above the camera body 2. When the multi-shutter button 7 is pressed halfway,
The AF sensor 4 measures the distance to the subject, the photometric sensor 5 measures the brightness of the subject, and when the two-stage shutter button 7 is fully pressed, the lens barrel 3 is adjusted to focus on the subject distance. It is taken out and a picture is taken.

The compact camera 1 according to this embodiment is
A plurality of light emitting elements 8 are provided on the ring-shaped tip portion of the lens barrel 3. The light emitting elements 8 may be evenly arranged around the lens optical axis as white light emitting elements, but in the present embodiment, the light emitting elements 8R of the three primary colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). , 8G, 8B as one set, and a total of four sets of light emitting element groups are evenly arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions around the lens optical axis.

The reason why they are evenly arranged in this way is that the subject can be illuminated uniformly. Generally, it is often illuminated uniformly, but in the present embodiment, the amount of light emitted from each light emitting element can be adjusted so that the shadow of the subject is intentionally biased.

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the compact camera shown in FIG. A finder window 10 connected to the finder window 6 on the front side is provided in the upper rear portion of the camera, and a liquid crystal display unit 11 for displaying the date, a shooting condition setting menu, a captured image, etc. is provided in the center of the rear surface. A switch 12, a zoom switch 13, a lamp switch 14, four lamp light amount setting switches 15 corresponding to up (U) down (D) left (L) right (R), a flash mode switch 16, and a date ( Date) correction switch 17
And are provided.

The main switch 12 is a switch for turning the power of the camera on and off, and the zoom switch 13
Causes the taking lens to zoom to the wide side when the wide side (W) switch 13a is pressed, and causes the taking lens to zoom to the tele side when the tele side (T) switch 13b is pressed. The date correction switches 17a and 17b are used to correct the date data displayed at the lower position of the liquid crystal display unit 11.

As will be described later, the flash mode switch 16 is a switch for cyclically setting a mode in which the flash lamp 2 is forced to emit light and a mode in which the flash lamp 2 is inhibited from emitting light. The lamp switch 14 and the lamp light amount setting switch 15 are used when setting and adjusting the lamp light amount, the color tone of the illumination light, and the like, as described later in detail.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control circuit incorporated in the compact camera according to this embodiment. This control circuit includes various switch buttons 12, 13a, 13 described above.
b, 17a, 17b, 16, 14, 15 (U), 15
(D), 15 (R), 15 (L), release switch 7
(The switch for half-press detection is 7a and the switch for full-press detection is 7b.), And the distance measuring circuit (AF sensor) 4
And a photometric (photometric sensor) circuit 5 for fetching information from the photometric (photometric sensor) circuit 5 and performing various arithmetic processes, and various output circuits for receiving control output from the CPU 20.

As the output circuit, in addition to the film feed motor drive circuit 21, the focus motor drive circuit 22, the zoom motor drive circuit 23, the flash circuit 24, and the shutter drive circuit 25, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. Twelve light emission control circuits for controlling light emission are provided for each of the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, and 8B shown in FIG.

Each light emission control circuit includes a D / A converter 26.
And a resistance element 27 and an amplifier 28 that are provided in series with each of the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, and 8B.
In this embodiment, the values of the resistance elements 27 connected in series to the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, and 8B are 100Ω, 200Ω, and
With 100Ω and the current value flowing through the green (G) light emitting element 8G is half the current value flowing through the red (R) and blue (B) light emitting elements 8R and 8B, the color of the illumination light can be adjusted without adjustment. The taste is normal (white).

When there are variations in the tint and the amount of emitted light of each light emitting element (LED), it is desirable to change the resistance value or adjust the output value of the D / A converter 26 correspondingly.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the compact camera according to this embodiment. The CPU 20 shown in FIG. 3 has the two-step shutter button 7 in step S1.
When the half-pushed state is detected, when the half-pushed state is detected, the brightness of the subject is measured in step S2, and the distance to the subject is measured in step S3. Then, in the next step S4, it is determined whether or not the lamp lighting condition is ON.

In the present embodiment, the turning on of the lamp lighting condition means (1) the photographer manually sets the lamp (light emitting element 8 in advance).
If the lighting conditions for R, 8G, and 8B) are set as described later, the result of distance measurement is within a predetermined distance (for example, 70 cm) even if the lighting condition for the lamp is on (2) is not set manually. When the photometric result is less than or equal to the predetermined brightness, it is turned on (in this case, the tint and light amount of the lamp are automatically set to normal (default value is normal)).

If the lamp lighting condition is not ON, the process proceeds to step S5, and it is determined whether or not the two-step shutter button 7 is fully pressed. As a result of the determination in step S5,
If it is not fully pressed, the process proceeds to step S6,
It is determined whether the shutter button 7 is half pressed. When it is determined in step S6 that the half-pushed state has been reached, the process returns to step S5 and waits for the full-pushed state. If it is determined in step S6 that the user has not released the shutter button halfway but has released the finger from the shutter button 7 to stop shooting, the process returns to step S1 and waits until the shutter button 7 is in the half pressed state. .

When it is determined in step S5 that the shutter button 7 is fully pressed, the process proceeds to step S7, and the lens barrel 3 is extended so that the lens is in the in-focus position with respect to the subject. Then, in the next step S8, the shutter is opened and closed. At this time, according to the distance to the subject, that is, the result of the distance measurement to the subject in step S3,
The flash lamp 2 is forcibly turned on or off, and shooting is performed. After the photographing is completed, the lens barrel 3 is returned to the original state of FIG. 1 in the next step S9, the film is advanced by one frame in step S10, and this series of processing is completed.

When it is determined in step S4 that the lamp lighting condition is ON, steps S4 to S1 are performed.
In step 1, the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, 8B are turned on according to the set conditions. Then, the process proceeds to step S12, and it is determined whether or not the two-step shutter button 7 is fully pressed.
If the result of determination in step S12 is that the shutter button 7 has not been fully pressed, it proceeds to step S13 and it is determined whether or not the shutter button 7 is in the half-pressed state.

If it is determined in step S13 that the button is half pressed, the process returns to step S12 and waits until the button is fully pressed. As described above, in the present embodiment, the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, and 8B are pressed when the shutter button 7 is half pressed.
Since the lighting state of the light emitting element 8 can be maintained,
It is possible to check the light distribution and the color tone of the subject by the light emission of R, 8G, and 8B.

In step S13, it is not in the half-pressed state,
If it can be determined that the user has released the finger from the shutter button 7 to stop shooting, the process returns to step S1 and waits until the shutter button 7 is half pressed.

When it is determined in step S12 that the shutter button 7 is fully pressed, the process proceeds to step S14, and the lens barrel 3 is extended so that the lens is in the in-focus position with respect to the subject. Then, in the next step S15, photometry is performed again in a state where the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, and 8B are lit to determine exposure conditions, and in step S16, the shutter is opened and closed to perform macro photography of the subject.

In the next step S17, the light emitting elements 8R, 8
The lights of G and 8B are turned off, and the lens barrel 3 is turned on in step S18.
Is returned to the original state of FIG. 1, the film is fed by one frame in step S10, and this series of processing is completed.

5 to 7 are transition diagrams of the liquid crystal display screen showing the manual setting procedure of the lamp lighting condition. Manual setting of the lamp lighting condition is performed by the photographer manually pressing various switch buttons while viewing the condition setting screen of the liquid crystal display unit 11.

First, when the camera power is turned on by pushing the main switch 12 by one, the flash mode becomes the auto mode (transition state (1-1) in FIG. 5), and when the shutter button 7 is fully pressed in this state, The flash lamp 2 automatically emits light with low brightness.

The screen display of the liquid crystal display unit 11 is in the state (1-
1), set the flash mode switch 16 to 1
When pushed, the screen display changes to the state (1-2),
Flash mode on (flash forced flash mode)
When the flash mode switch 16 is pushed further, the screen display changes to the state (1-3) and the flash mode is turned off (flash emission prohibition mode). When the flash mode switch 16 is further pushed, the screen display returns to the state (1-1).

FIG. 6 is a transition diagram of the screen display when the lamp mode (light emission amount setting mode of each light emitting element) is entered. When any one of the screens (1-1) (1-2) (1-3) shown in FIG. 5 is displayed, the lamp switch 1
When 4 is pushed one time, the screen display changes to the state (2-1) of FIG. This state is the default setting state, the tint is normal (white), and the light amount is also normal.

When the lamp switch 14 is pushed further one time, the screen display changes to the state (2-2) and the setting screen for adjusting the red light emission amount is displayed (+ R is displayed so that the setter can recognize it). Becomes When the lamp switch 14 is pushed further, the screen display transits to the state (2-3), and the setting screen for adjusting the amount of green light emission is displayed (+ G is displayed so that the operator can recognize it). When 14 is pushed one time, the screen display is in the state (2-
4), and go to the setting screen (+ B
Is displayed so that the setter can recognize it. ). If the lamp switch 14 is pushed further, the state (2-
Return to the screen display of 1).

Under the screen display in the states (2-1) to (2-4) of FIG. 6, the lamp light amount setting switch 15 (U, D,
When any one of L, R) is pushed, the light amount setting screen is displayed. For example, when the lamp light amount setting switch 15U is pushed once in the state (2-1) of FIG. 6, the screen display changes to the state (3-1) of FIG.

Since the U switch of the lamp light quantity setting switch 15 is a switch showing the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, 8B arranged on the upper side of the lens optical axis of the taking lens shown in FIG. 1, the light emitting quantity of this light emitting element is It is set to go down one step. In this example, since the tint is normal, all the emitted light amount of one set of the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, 8B arranged above the lens among the four sets of the light emitting elements 8R, 8G, 8B shown in FIG. To be down.

When the U switch is further pushed by 1 in the state (3-1) of FIG. 7, the upper light emitting element 8R,
The amount of light emitted from 8G and 8B is reduced by two levels (state (3-
2)), and when the U switch is further pushed, the amount of emitted light returns to the original state as shown in the state (3-3).
That is, in this embodiment, the emitted light amount is set in three stages. When the flash mode switch 16 is pressed during the lamp mode shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the screen display shown in FIG. 5 is restored.

In the above example, the setting of the emitted light amount when the tint is normal has been described, but the emitted light amount of the light emitting element 8B is adjusted so as to adjust (+ B) the blue of the tints. Then, the setting screen as shown in FIG. 8 is displayed. In this example, the emitted light amount is reduced by one step for each push, but the emitted light amount may be increased by one step for each push.

As described above, when the amount of light emitted from each light emitting element 8R, 8G, 8B in each set is set, C
The PU 20 controls the voltage value output to each D / A converter 26 to a value according to each set value.

For example, when the color normality: m = 0 color tone adjustment: m = 1 light quantity setting normal: n = 0 light quantity setting −1: n = −1 light quantity setting −2: n = −2, the CPU 20 determines , The output voltage value Vout to each D / A converter 26 is obtained as Vout = 4 × 2 ^{(m + n)} [V] (Equation 1) and output.

That is, if both the tint and the light quantity are normal, Vout = 4V If the tint is normal and the light quantity is -2, then Vout = 1V.

In FIG. 9, the tint adjustment is + B (blue adjustment),
It is a figure which shows the example which calculated the output voltage value with respect to a total of 12 light emitting elements 8R, 8G, and 8B by the above-mentioned formula 1, when light quantity is set to U-1, D0, L0, and R-2. . In this figure, the value of the current I _LED flowing through each light emitting element is
The resistance values (100Ω, 200Ω) shown in FIG.
0 is a value obtained from the calculated output voltage value corresponding to each light emitting element.

As described above, in the camera equipped with the light emitting element for close-up photography illumination according to the present embodiment, the light-emitting element for close-up photography illumination is automatically turned on during macro photography to illuminate a subject at a close range. Furthermore, of the illumination light for close-up photography, the color to be emphasized and the direction in which the emission intensity is desired to be increased can be adjusted arbitrarily, so that it is possible to perform photography that reflects the photographer's intention of photography, and the camera according to the present embodiment The value of use can be increased.

Further, the light emitting element (LED element) used in the camera of the present embodiment has an advantage that it consumes less power than the light emission of the flash lamp, and the light emitting element which does not require a charging capacitor is taken in close-up photography. By adopting it for illumination, there is also an advantage that it is not necessary to provide a condenser for close-up photography illumination, and there is no need to upsize the camera.

Although the embodiment has been described by taking a film camera as an example, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a digital still camera, and is applicable not only to a compact camera but also to a single lens reflex camera. Can be applied.

[0046]

According to the present invention, since it is possible to adjust the amount of emitted light and the tint for each installation location of the light emitting element for close-up photography, it becomes possible to perform macro photography that reflects the photographer's intention of photography, which makes the camera useful. Is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front side external view of a camera with a light emitting element for close-up photography illumination according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the back side of the camera shown in FIG.

3 is a configuration diagram of a control device of the camera shown in FIG.

4 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the camera shown in FIG.

5 is a transition diagram of a flash mode setting screen of the camera shown in FIG.

6 is a transition diagram of a setting screen of a lamp mode (close-up photography illumination mode) of the camera shown in FIG.

7 is a transition diagram of a light emission amount setting screen in the lamp mode of the camera shown in FIG.

8 is a diagram showing a setting example of the camera shown in FIG.

9 is a diagram illustrating voltage values output by a control device for each light emitting element of the camera shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Camera with light-emitting element for close-up photography illumination 2 Flash lamp 3 lens barrel 4 AF sensor 5 Photometric sensor 7 2-step shutter button 8 Light-emitting element for close-up photography lighting 8R red light emitting element 8G green light emitting element 8B blue light emitting element 11 LCD display 12 Main switch 14 lamp switch 15 Lamp light intensity setting switch 16 Flash mode switch

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G03B 15/03 G03B 15/03 FW X (72) Inventor Yasuhiko Tanaka 1324, Uetakecho, Saitama City Address: Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Jun Hiraku, 1-324, Uetakecho, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture F Term inside Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd. (reference) 2H002 AB04 CD04 CD06 FB32 FB36 GA28 GA31 2H053 AB03 AD01 AD06 AD11 CA04

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of light-emitting elements arranged in a ring shape at the tip of the lens barrel of a photographing lens, and a light-emission light quantity adjusting means for independently setting the light-emission light quantity of each light-emitting element,
A camera, comprising: a control unit that lights each of the light emitting elements with the emitted light amount set by the emitted light amount adjusting unit to perform macro photography. 2. A plurality of sets of light-emitting elements, each of which includes a red light-emitting element, a green light-emitting element, and a blue light-emitting element, are arranged in a ring shape at the tip of the lens barrel, and each of the light-emission quantity adjusting means has a respective structure. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the amount of emitted light is set for each light emitting element of the set. 3. The emitted light amount adjusting means sets the emitted light amount of each light emitting element to a default value when the emitted light amount of each light emitting element is not manually set. The camera described in.