JP2005091631A - Strobe device and camera with built-in strobe - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase an amount of light in the boundary of a stroboscopic light emission range without decreasing an amount of light in the center of the stroboscopic light emission range. <P>SOLUTION: A reflecting member 42 is attached to a strobe device 25 built in a digital camera 2. The reflecting member 42 reflects stroboscopic light emitted from both ends 40c of a strobe discharge tube 40 which protrudes from the reflector 41, and makes the stroboscopic light incident in the reflector 41. The case where the reflecting member 42 is attached to the strobe device 25 increases an amount of light towards the boundary of the emission range, in comparison with the case where the strobe device 25 is not provided with the reflecting member 42. In addition, the amount of light in the center is approximately the same as the case where the strobe device 25 is not provided with the reflecting member 42. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a strobe device capable of efficiently irradiating a subject with strobe light and a camera with a built-in strobe.

  A camera that shoots a subject has a built-in strobe device that emits strobe light toward the subject in order to enable shooting in situations where the amount of light is insufficient, such as at night or indoors. This strobe device has a strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light, an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted into a pair of opposing side walls, and a reflector that is curved in a concave shape between the side walls. And.

  As a strobe device as described above, the angle of the side wall of the reflector with respect to the strobe discharge tube is reflected in the direction in which the strobe light moves away from the front side of the discharge tube in order to cope with the widening of the angle of view of the photographing lens of the camera. An angled strobe device has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-21960

  In the strobe device described in Patent Document 1, although the strobe light irradiation range is widened, the strobe light that escapes outside the shooting angle of view increases, and the light amount at the center of the irradiation range decreases simultaneously with the light amount at the boundary of the irradiation range. There was a problem of doing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a strobe device and a camera with built-in strobe that can increase the amount of light at the boundary of the irradiation range without reducing the amount of light at the center of the irradiation range of the strobe light. The purpose is to do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 has a strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light, and an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted into a pair of opposing side walls, and between these side walls. A curved portion that is curved in a concave shape is formed, and the strobe discharge tube is held so that both end portions of the strobe discharge tube protrude from the insertion port, and the strobe light is reflected forward by the surface of the curved portion. A strobe device including a reflector is provided with a reflection member that reflects strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube and enters the reflector.

  In addition, it is preferable that the said reflection member is formed from the nonmetallic silicon mixed with the pigment which has a high diffuse reflection characteristic. Moreover, it is preferable that the said reflection member is provided with the urging means which urges | biases the said strobe discharge tube to the curved part direction of the said reflector.

  The invention described in claim 4 has a strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light, and an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted into a pair of opposite side walls, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between the side walls. A strobe device comprising: a reflector that is formed and holds the strobe discharge tube so that both end portions of the strobe discharge tube protrude from the insertion port, and reflects the strobe light forward on the surface of the curved portion. The reflector case that protects the reflector is provided with a light guide portion that guides strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube forward. In addition, it is preferable that the said light guide part consists of a transparent material.

  The invention described in claim 6 has a strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light, and an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted into a pair of opposing side walls, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between these side walls. A strobe device comprising: a reflector that is formed and holds the strobe discharge tube so that both ends of the strobe discharge tube protrude from the insertion port, and reflects the strobe light forward on the surface of the curved portion. In the built-in camera, a reflection member that reflects strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube and enters the reflector is attached to the strobe device.

  In addition, it is preferable that the said reflection member is formed from the nonmetallic silicon mixed with the pigment which has a high diffuse reflection characteristic. Moreover, it is preferable that the said reflection member is provided with the urging means which urges | biases the said strobe discharge tube to the curved part direction of the said reflector.

  The invention described in claim 9 has a strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light, and an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted into a pair of opposing side walls, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between the side walls. A strobe device comprising: a reflector that is formed and holds the strobe discharge tube so that both ends of the strobe discharge tube protrude from the insertion port, and reflects the strobe light forward on the surface of the curved portion. The built-in camera is characterized in that a light guide portion that guides strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube forward is provided in a reflector case that protects the reflector of the strobe device. In addition, it is preferable that the said light guide part consists of a transparent material.

  According to the stroboscopic device and the stroboscope built-in camera of the present invention, since the reflecting member that reflects the stroboscopic light emitted from both ends of the stroboscopic discharge tube and enters the reflector is attached, the light quantity at the center of the stroboscopic light irradiation range is attached. The amount of light at the boundary of the irradiation range can be increased without lowering. Therefore, even when the angle of view of the photographing lens is wide, it is possible to obtain a sufficient amount of light for flash photography.

  1 and 2, on the front surface of a digital camera 2 to which the present invention is applied, an imaging lens 10, a viewfinder objective window 11 constituting an optical viewfinder, and a strobe light emission window 12 from which strobe light is emitted are provided. A release button 13 is provided on the top surface, and a memory card slot 14 into which a memory card 22 (see FIG. 3) is detachably loaded and a connector 15 (for example, a USB connector) are provided on the side surface. . Further, a finder eyepiece window 16, a liquid crystal display (LCD) 17, and an operation unit 18 are provided on the back surface.

  The release button 13 is a two-stage push switch. After framing by the optical viewfinder or LCD 17, when the release button 13 is lightly pressed (half-pressed), the CPU 20 (see FIG. 3) performs various shooting preparation processes such as automatic exposure adjustment (AE) and automatic focus adjustment (AF). The In this state, when the release button 13 is pressed once more (fully pressed), the imaging signal for one screen subjected to the imaging preparation process is converted into image data, and then image processing and compression processing described later are performed. And recorded in the memory card 22 (see FIG. 3).

  In FIG. 3 showing the electrical configuration of the digital camera 2, the CPU 20 controls the entire digital camera 2 in an integrated manner. In addition to the release button 13 and the operation unit 18 described above, the CPU 20 includes an LCD driver 21 that controls the operation of the LCD 17, a media controller 23 that controls data reading / writing to the memory card 22, and an external connector via the connector 15. A communication I / F 24 that transmits / receives data to / from the device, a strobe control circuit 26 that controls the strobe device 25, a ROM 27, and a RAM 28 are connected. The ROM 27 stores various control programs and setting information. The CPU 20 reads these pieces of information from the ROM 27 to the RAM 28 which is a working memory, and executes various processes.

  Behind the imaging lens 10 is a CCD 29 for imaging subject light that has passed through the imaging lens 10. The imaging signal output from the CCD 29 is input to the signal processing circuit 30. The signal processing circuit 30 outputs R, G, and B image data accurately corresponding to the accumulated charge amount of each cell of the CCD 29, amplifies the image data by a predetermined amount, and converts the image data into digital image data.

  The image data output from the signal processing circuit 30 is temporarily stored in the RAM 28 and displayed as a so-called through image on the LCD 17 via the LCD driver 21. In this state, when the release button 13 is fully pressed and shooting is performed, the image data for one screen stored in the RAM 28 is subjected to various image processing such as gradation conversion and white balance adjustment by the CPU 20. The The image data after the image processing is compressed in a predetermined compression format (for example, JPEG format) and recorded on the memory card 22 via the media controller 23.

  As the flash mode of the flash device 25, for example, there are an automatic flash mode in which the flash is automatically fired when the subject brightness is low, a forced flash mode in which the flash is fired regardless of the subject brightness, and a flash prohibit mode in which the flash is prohibited. These can be selected by operating the operation unit 18.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the strobe device 25 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes the strobe light emission window 12, the strobe discharge tube 40, the reflector 41, the reflection member 42, and the like. Although not shown and described, the strobe device 25 protects the circuit board on which the strobe control circuit 26 is mounted, the reflector 41, a reflector case for connecting the reflector 41 and the circuit board, and a charging device. Capacitors are unitized and attached.

  As is well known, the strobe discharge tube 40 is a cylindrical discharge tube main body 40a filled with xenon gas, and a high voltage, for example, a 4KV trigger is applied in a state where a predetermined voltage is applied to both terminals 40b by a capacitor. When a voltage is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the discharge tube main body 40a, the internal xenon gas is ionized. As a result, the insulation between the terminals 40b is broken, and the electric charge charged in the capacitor is discharged in the discharge tube main body 40a to emit strobe light.

  The reflector 41 is formed by bending, for example, a thin aluminum plate, and includes a curved portion 41a and a pair of side walls 41b. The curved portion 41 a is curved in a concave shape so as to become wider toward the strobe light emission window 12. The curved portion 41 a covers the back and top and bottom of the discharge tube main body 40 a and reflects the strobe light toward the strobe light emission window 12 on the inner surface.

  The side wall 41b is provided so as to block both ends of the curved portion 41a in the longitudinal direction of the discharge tube main body 40a. This side wall 41b plays an auxiliary role for controlling the light distribution of the strobe light in the longitudinal direction of the discharge tube main body 40a by reflecting the strobe light from the discharge tube main body 40a on the inner surface thereof. Each side wall 41b is formed with an insertion port 41c through which the discharge tube main body 40a is inserted. The insertion port 41c is located at a position slightly recessed inward from the outer wall surface of the side wall 41b, and the reflecting member 42 is fitted into the recess without a gap.

  The reflecting member 42 has a substantially cylindrical shape that covers both end portions 40 c of the strobe discharge tube 40 protruding from the reflector 41, reflects the strobe light emitted from the both end portions 40 c, and causes the reflected light to enter the reflector 41. Similar to the side wall 41 b of the reflector 41, the reflecting member 42 is formed with an insertion opening 42 a through which both end portions 40 c of the strobe discharge tube 40 are inserted.

  The reflecting member 42 is a non-mixed pigment having a high diffuse reflection characteristic in order to overcome the problem of trigger leakage that causes leakage from both terminals 40a when the trigger voltage is applied and the problem of thermal deformation due to heat generation of the strobe discharge tube 40. It is made of metallic silicon.

  The strobe discharge tube 40 is inserted into the insertion port 41c in a state where the reflector 41 is fitted in the reflector case, and is assembled so that the outer peripheral surface of the discharge tube main body 40a contacts the inner surface of the curved portion 41a. As a result, the trigger voltage is applied to the discharge tube main body 40a via the reflector 41. The front surface of the strobe light emission window 12 is a plane substantially parallel to the front surface of the digital camera 2, but a concave / convex pattern is integrally formed on the back surface thereof, and strobe light emitted from the strobe discharge tube 40 and a reflector 41. The reflected strobe light is diffused and emitted toward the subject, and dust and dust are protected from entering the strobe device 25.

  FIG. 6 shows a light distribution in the longitudinal direction of the strobe discharge tube 40. In the figure, Δ indicates that the reflecting member 42 is not provided, ○ indicates that the reflecting member 42 is attached, the vertical axis indicates the amount of light (EV), and the horizontal axis indicates the coordinates (mm). The coordinate 0 is the center of the strobe discharge tube 40 in the longitudinal direction, and the light quantity at that time is zero. As is clear from this figure, the amount of light increases as the coordinates increase (closer to the boundary of the irradiation range) and the amount of light at the center is greater when the reflecting member 42 is attached than when the reflecting member 42 is not provided. This is similar to the case where there is no reflecting member 42. From this, it can be said that the object of the present invention has been achieved in which the amount of light at the boundary of the irradiation range is increased without reducing the amount of light at the center of the irradiation range of the strobe light.

  Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. When the operation unit 18 is operated and the automatic light emission mode or the forced light emission mode is selected, charging of the capacitor of the flash device 25 is started in synchronization with the half-press of the release button 13. When the capacitor is charged to the specified level and the release button 13 is fully pressed to perform shooting, a trigger voltage is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the discharge tube main body 40a via the reflector 41, and strobe light is emitted from the strobe discharge tube 40. Be emitted.

  The strobe light emitted from the strobe discharge tube 40 is reflected by the inner surfaces of the curved portion 41 a and the side wall 41 b and is emitted toward the strobe light emission window 12. Further, the strobe light emitted from both end portions 40 c of the strobe discharge tube 40 is reflected by the reflecting member 42 and enters the reflector 41. As a result, the light amount at the boundary of the irradiation range increases without decreasing the light amount at the center of the irradiation range of the strobe light. Therefore, even when the angle of view of the imaging lens 10 is wide, a sufficient amount of light for strobe photography can be obtained. Moreover, the strobe light emitted from both end portions 40c, which has conventionally been harmful light that adversely affects photographing, can be effectively utilized.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 7, you may use the reflection member 52 provided with the leaf | plate spring 51. FIG. The leaf spring 51 urges the strobe discharge tube 40 toward the curved portion 41 a of the reflector 41 in a state where the reflecting member 52 is attached to both end portions 40 c of the strobe discharge tube 40. With such a configuration, the inner surface of the curved portion 41a and the outer peripheral surface of the discharge tube main body 40a can be reliably brought into contact with each other, and trigger leak can be suppressed.

  8 and 9, a strobe device 60 according to the second embodiment of the present invention includes a reflector case 61 provided with light guide portions 61a at both ends. The light guide portion 61a is made of a transparent material, for example, plastic, and has a concave portion 61b that holds the front portions of both end portions 40c of the strobe discharge tube 40 so as to wrap outside the strobe discharge tube 40 by a predetermined angle from the longitudinal direction. And an inclined surface 61c inclined in the direction. Strobe light emitted from both ends 40c of the strobe discharge tube 40 is guided toward the strobe light emission window 12 by the light guide 61a. This light guide part 61a exhibits the same effect as the reflecting member 42 in the first embodiment.

  In the above embodiment, the digital camera 2 has been described as an example of a camera with a built-in strobe. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to, for example, an ordinary photo camera, an instant camera, and a lens-fitted photo film unit. .

It is a front external perspective view of a digital camera to which the present invention is applied. It is a back external appearance perspective view of a digital camera. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a digital camera. 1 is an external perspective view of a strobe device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the strobe device shown in FIG. 4. It is a graph which shows the light distribution in the longitudinal direction of a strobe discharge tube. It is a disassembled perspective view which shows another embodiment of a strobe device. It is an external appearance perspective view of the strobe device which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of the strobe device shown in FIG. 8.

Explanation of symbols

2 Digital Camera 10 Imaging Lens 12 Strobe Light Emission Window 13 Release Button 17 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
18 Operation unit 20 CPU
22 Memory Card 25, 50, 60 Strobe Device 26 Strobe Control Circuit 29 CCD
40 Strobe Discharge Tube 40c End 41 Reflector 41a Curved Part 41b Side Wall 41c Insertion Port 42, 52 Reflecting Member 51 Leaf Spring 61 Reflector Case 61a Light Guide

Claims (10)

A strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light;
A pair of opposing side walls has an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between these side walls,
In the stroboscopic device comprising the reflector for holding the stroboscopic discharge tube so that both end portions of the stroboscopic discharge tube protrude from the insertion port and reflecting the stroboscopic light forward on the surface of the curved portion,
A strobe device comprising a reflecting member that reflects strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube and enters the reflector.   2. The strobe device according to claim 1, wherein the reflecting member is made of non-metallic silicon mixed with a pigment having high diffuse reflection characteristics.   3. The strobe device according to claim 1, wherein the reflecting member includes a biasing unit that biases the strobe discharge tube toward the curved portion of the reflector. A strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light;
A pair of opposing side walls has an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between these side walls,
In the stroboscopic device comprising the reflector for holding the stroboscopic discharge tube so that both end portions of the stroboscopic discharge tube protrude from the insertion port and reflecting the stroboscopic light forward on the surface of the curved portion,
A strobe device characterized in that a light guide portion for guiding strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube to the front is provided in a reflector case for protecting the reflector.   The strobe device according to claim 4, wherein the light guide unit is made of a transparent material. A strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light;
A pair of opposing side walls has an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between these side walls,
A camera having a built-in strobe device that holds the strobe discharge tube so that both end portions of the strobe discharge tube protrude from the insertion port, and a reflector that reflects the strobe light forward on the surface of the curved portion. In
A camera with a built-in strobe, wherein a reflection member that reflects strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube and enters the reflector is attached to the strobe device.   7. The camera with built-in strobe according to claim 6, wherein the reflecting member is made of non-metallic silicon mixed with a pigment having high diffuse reflection characteristics.   The camera with a built-in strobe according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the reflecting member includes a biasing unit that biases the strobe discharge tube toward the curved portion of the reflector. A strobe discharge tube that emits strobe light;
A pair of opposing side walls has an insertion port through which the strobe discharge tube is inserted, and a curved portion curved in a concave shape is formed between these side walls,
A camera having a built-in strobe device that holds the strobe discharge tube so that both end portions of the strobe discharge tube protrude from the insertion port, and a reflector that reflects the strobe light forward on the surface of the curved portion. In
A camera with a built-in strobe, wherein a light guide unit for guiding strobe light emitted from both ends of the strobe discharge tube is provided in a reflector case that protects the reflector of the strobe device.   The camera with built-in strobe according to claim 9, wherein the light guide unit is made of a transparent material.

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