JP2005143023A - Image pickup unit - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image pickup unit with which everyone can simply and easily take a picture on special photographic conditions. <P>SOLUTION: A digital camera 2 comprises a radio tag reader 26 that fetches a photographic condition from a radio tag 32 wherein photographic conditions are stored, and a flash ROM 58 that stores the fetched photographic condition, and performs photographic processing according to the fetched photographic condition to take the picture of an object. Only by fetching a photographic condition from the radio tag 32 using the radio tag reader 26, a photograph that faithfully reproduces a delicate color tone or taste, can be taken. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus that captures shooting conditions from a wireless tag and executes shooting of a subject based on the shooting conditions.

  As an imaging apparatus, a digital camera that converts a subject image captured by a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD into digital image data and records the digital image data on a recording medium such as a built-in memory or a memory card is widely used. Some of such digital cameras can customize various functions of the camera according to user's preference.

  For digital cameras such as those described above, user-specific shooting conditions based on past shooting processes are stored as custom shooting conditions, and when a custom shooting mode is set with the mode dial, There has been proposed a technique for performing a photographing process (see Patent Document 1). Further, there has been proposed an icon image that can be used as an icon arranged on a menu screen by obtaining a favorite icon image from among a large number of icon images that are disclosed via the Internet (Patent Literature). 2).

JP 2001-186406 A JP 2002-185838 A

  By the way, if you look at photos taken by professional photographers and users want to take similar photos, you have to make settings according to the shooting conditions posted in the photo collection, It takes a lot of time and effort. Also, for those who are unfamiliar with camera operation and those who are not familiar with photography, setting the above shooting conditions is a more complicated task, and even if the corner shooting conditions are set, shooting may fail. . Here, the digital cameras described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 can be customized according to the user's preference, but cannot meet the user's request as described above.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus that allows anyone to easily and easily perform shooting under special shooting conditions.

  In order to achieve the above object, an imaging apparatus according to the present invention includes a wireless tag reader that captures the shooting conditions from a wireless tag that stores shooting conditions, a storage unit that stores the captured shooting conditions, and a captured shooting condition. And an image pickup means for shooting a subject.

  In addition, it is preferable that the storage unit includes a selection unit that can store a plurality of the shooting conditions and allows the user to select a plurality of stored shooting conditions. Preferably, the photographing condition includes image data indicating the condition, and image display means for displaying the image data when the plurality of photographing conditions are selected.

  Further, it is preferable that the image capturing unit executes shooting under a preset auto shooting condition or a default shooting condition set at the time of purchase of the camera before taking in the shooting condition by the wireless tag reader. It is preferable to provide default return means for resetting the shooting conditions stored in the means to return to the default shooting conditions set at the time of camera purchase. Furthermore, it is preferable that the selection unit has a configuration capable of switching the plurality of shooting conditions in stages, and the plurality of shooting conditions are assigned to each stage.

  According to the imaging apparatus of the present invention, the wireless tag reader that captures the photographing conditions from the wireless tag that stores the photographing conditions, the storage unit that stores the captured photographing conditions, and the subject is photographed based on the captured photographing conditions. Since the imaging means for executing is provided, anyone can easily and easily perform imaging under special imaging conditions.

  1 and 2, a digital camera 2 to which the present invention is applied includes a lens barrel 11 in which an imaging lens 10 is incorporated, a finder objective window 12 and a finder eyepiece window 13 that form an optical finder, and a strobe light emitting unit 14. Is provided. A grip 15, a shooting mode selection dial 16, and a release button 17 are provided on the side surface and top surface of the digital camera 2, and a memory card slot 19 in which a memory card 18 is detachably loaded is provided on the other side surface. It has been.

  A liquid crystal display (LCD) 20 and an operation unit 21 are provided on the back surface of the digital camera 2. The LCD 20 displays captured images and so-called through images. The operation unit 21 displays a menu screen on the power button 22 that is pressed when the power is turned on / off, a mode selection lever 23 for switching between a shooting mode and a playback mode, which will be described later, and a selection screen. The menu button 24 is pressed when the content is determined / cancelled, and the cursor operation plate 25 is used to move the cursor within the menu screen displayed on the LCD 20.

  A wireless tag reader 26 is attached to the bottom surface of the digital camera 2. As shown in FIG. 3, the wireless tag reader 26 takes in the shooting conditions from the wireless tag 32 in which the shooting conditions of the photo 31 posted in the photo book 30 are stored, and stores it in a flash ROM 58 (see FIG. 4) described later. Send. The shooting conditions stored in the wireless tag 32 include various shooting parameters such as aperture value, shutter speed, angle of view, shooting sensitivity, white balance correction value, γ correction value, photographer, title, and thumbnail image. Information.

  The release button 17 is a two-stage push switch. When the release button 17 is lightly pressed (half-pressed) after framing by the optical finder or the LCD 20, various shooting preparation processes such as automatic exposure adjustment (AE) and automatic focus adjustment (AF) are performed. In this state, when the release button 17 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. Recorded in the memory card 18.

  In the digital camera 2, a shooting mode for shooting, a playback mode for displaying a shot image on the LCD 20, and a setup mode for various settings can be selected. The shooting modes include a still image shooting mode (auto, manual), a moving image shooting mode, and a special shooting mode. Switching between these modes is performed by operating the shooting mode selection dial 16 and the mode selection lever 23. It is done by doing.

  In FIG. 4 showing the electrical configuration of the digital camera 2, a lens motor 40 is connected to the imaging lens 10. An iris motor 42 is connected to the diaphragm 41. These motors 40 and 42 are stepping motors, are controlled in operation by drive pulses transmitted from motor drivers 44 and 45 connected to the CPU 43, and perform photographing preparation processing in response to half-pressing of the release button 17.

  The lens motor 40 moves the focus lens of the imaging lens 10 according to the subject distance, and adjusts the focus of the imaging lens 10 so that the shooting conditions are optimized. The iris motor 42 operates the diaphragm 41 to adjust the exposure of the imaging lens 10.

  Behind the imaging lens 10 is a CCD 46 that images the subject light transmitted through the imaging lens 10. A timing generator (TG) 47 controlled by the CPU 43 is connected to the CCD 46, and the shutter speed of the electronic shutter is determined by a timing signal (clock pulse) input from the TG 47.

  The imaging signal output from the CCD 46 is input to a correlated double sampling circuit (CDS) 48, and output as R, G, B image data that accurately corresponds to the accumulated charge amount of each cell of the CCD 46. The image data output from the CDS 48 is amplified by an amplifier (AMP) 49 and converted to digital data by an A / D converter (A / D) 50.

  The image input controller 51 is connected to the CPU 43 via the bus 52, and controls the CCD 46, CDS 48, AMP 49, and A / D 50 in accordance with a control command from the CPU 43. The image data output from the A / D 50 is transmitted to the image signal processing circuit 53 via the image input controller 51.

  The image signal processing circuit 53 performs various types of image processing such as gradation conversion, white balance correction, and γ correction processing on the image data, and stores the image data in the SDRAM 54. The image data stored in the SDRAM 54 is converted into a composite signal by the LCD driver 55 and displayed on the LCD 20.

  The image data subjected to various processes in the image signal processing circuit 53 and stored in the SDRAM 54 is converted into a luminance signal Y and color difference signals Cr and Cb by a YC conversion processing circuit (not shown). The compression / decompression processing circuit 56 performs image compression on the converted image data in a predetermined compression format (for example, JPEG format). The compressed image data is recorded on the memory card 18 via the media controller 57.

  In addition to the processing circuits described above, a flash ROM 58 and a strobe control circuit 60 that controls the operation of the strobe device 59 are connected to the bus 52. The flash ROM 58 stores various control programs and setting information. Also, as shown in FIG. 5, a condition area 61 is secured in which four shooting conditions captured by the wireless tag reader 26 are stored. The CPU 43 reads these pieces of information from the flash ROM 58 to the SDRAM 54 which is a working memory, and executes various processes. Here, although four shooting conditions can be stored in the flash ROM 58, they can be changed as appropriate according to the specifications of the digital camera 2.

  Next, the operation of the digital camera 2 having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the power button 22 is pressed to turn on the digital camera 2. When the shooting mode selection dial 16 and the mode selection lever 23 are operated to select the special shooting mode and the menu button 24 is pressed, a menu screen 70a shown in FIG.

  After the menu screen 70a is displayed, when the cursor operation plate 25 is operated to move the cursor 71 to “setting” and the menu button 24 is pressed, a menu screen 70b shown in FIG. 6B is displayed. In this state, the cursor operation panel 25 and the menu button 24 are operated again to select an item for which shooting conditions are to be set from “Condition 1” to “Condition 4”.

  After selecting an item for which shooting conditions are to be set, the digital camera 2 is set on the wireless tag 32 attached to the photo 31 of the photo album 30 and the menu button 24 is operated to capture the shooting conditions by the wireless tag reader 26. Start. During capturing of the shooting conditions, a “capturing” dialog 72 is displayed as shown in FIG. This dialog 72 disappears upon completion of capturing of the shooting conditions.

  The shooting conditions captured by the wireless tag reader 26 are stored in the condition area 61 of the flash ROM 58. After the capturing of the shooting conditions is completed, as shown in FIG. 7D, a title (“classic car”) 73 indicating the captured shooting conditions is displayed, and the user is notified that the capturing has ended. In response to this notification, the user operates the menu button 24 to return to the menu screen 70a, and selects “shooting” to perform special shooting. In order to make the contents of the captured shooting conditions easier to understand, image data such as a thumbnail image may be displayed as the shooting conditions instead of the title.

  On the other hand, when it is attempted to capture shooting conditions that do not meet the specifications of the digital camera 2 (for example, when shooting conditions for causing a flash photography to be taken into a digital camera not equipped with a strobe device) are shown in FIG. In this manner, after the “capture impossible” dialog 74 is displayed on the LCD 20, the display is returned to the menu screen 70a shown in FIG.

  Under the special photographing mode, subject light incident through the imaging lens 10 is photoelectrically converted by the CCD 46 and sampled by the CDS 48. The image data output from the CDS 48 is amplified by the AMP 49 and converted to digital image data by the A / D 50. The digitally converted image data is transmitted to the image signal processing circuit 53 via the image input controller 51.

  The shooting conditions captured by the wireless tag reader 26 are read from the flash ROM 58 to the SDRAM 54. In the image signal processing circuit 53, various types of image processing are performed on the digitally converted image data in accordance with the photographing conditions captured by the wireless tag reader 26. The image data subjected to the image processing is sequentially stored in the SDRAM 54. The image data stored in the SDRAM 54 is displayed as a through image on the LCD 20 via the LCD driver 55. In this state, when the release button 17 is half-pressed, shooting preparation processing is performed in accordance with the shooting conditions captured by the wireless tag reader 26.

  After shooting preparation processing, when shooting is executed by fully pressing the release button 17, the image data stored in the SDRAM 54 at that time is read out to a YC conversion processing circuit (not shown), and the luminance signal Y and the color difference signals Cr, Cb are read. Are converted by the compression / decompression processing circuit 56 and recorded on the memory card 18 via the media controller 57.

  Here, before taking in the photographing conditions by the wireless tag reader 26, photographing is performed under the special photographing mode under preset auto photographing conditions or default photographing conditions set at the time of purchasing the camera.

  To reset the shooting conditions stored in the flash ROM 58 and return to the default shooting conditions, the mode selection lever 23 is operated to select the setup mode, and the menu screen 70c shown in FIG. Then, the cursor operation panel 25 and the menu button 24 are operated to select “condition all reset”. When a system reset is performed due to the backup battery discharge of the SDRAM 54, only the shooting conditions read from the flash ROM 58 to the SDRAM 54 are reset and returned to the default shooting conditions. Thereby, it is possible to easily return to the default photographing condition by the user's operation.

  With the above configuration, the radio tag reader 26 only captures the shooting conditions from the radio tag 32 and shoots a photograph that faithfully reproduces a subtle hue and appearance such as a photograph taken by a professional photographer. be able to.

  In the above embodiment, the example in which the wireless tag 32 is attached to the photo 31 of the photo book 30 has been described. However, “landscape”, “night view”, “sport”, “athletic meet”, “wedding”, etc. It is classified into various scenes, and the situation assumed from this scene, for example, "Admission Ceremony", "Ketkko", "Dance", "Wedding", "Bride and Groom Entrance" for "Sports Day". In addition, “cake sword”, “candle service”, and the like may be provided in a hierarchical manner, and the radiograph 32 may record the optimum shooting conditions for each situation. In this case, when a certain scene is selected and the shooting conditions are taken in, all of the plurality of situations provided in a hierarchy are stored in the condition area 61 of the flash ROM 58.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 12, the shooting mode selection dial can be configured to switch a plurality of shooting conditions in stages, and shooting conditions 1 to 4 may be assigned to each stage (SP1 to SP4). Good. In this way, the trouble of displaying the menu screen on the LCD 20 and selecting the shooting conditions can be saved, and the shooting conditions can be switched quickly.

  Note that if there is a problem with the shooting conditions captured when the subject is actually shot, it is preferable to alert the user with a beep sound or a message, etc., and to stop performing the shooting.

  In the above-described embodiment, the digital camera is exemplified as the imaging device. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to other imaging devices such as a camera-equipped mobile phone.

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 explanatory drawing which shows a mode at the time of taking in imaging conditions from a wireless tag. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a digital camera. It is explanatory drawing which shows the data structure of flash ROM. It is a figure which shows the transition of the menu screen displayed on LCD in special imaging | photography mode, (A) shows the screen which selects a setting / photographing, (B) shows the screen which selects the item which takes in imaging conditions, respectively. It is a figure which shows the transition of the menu screen displayed on LCD in a special imaging | photography mode, (C) shows the screen during taking-in of imaging conditions, (D) shows the screen after taking in imaging conditions, respectively. It is a figure which shows the menu screen displayed on LCD when it is going to take in the imaging conditions which do not match the specification of a digital camera. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence at the time of taking in imaging conditions. It is a figure which shows the menu screen displayed on LCD under setup mode. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence at the time of resetting imaging | photography conditions. It is a figure which shows another embodiment of a photography mode selection dial.

Explanation of symbols

2 Digital camera 10 Imaging lens 16, 80 Shooting mode selection dial 17 Release button 18 Memory card 20 Liquid crystal display (LCD)
21 Operation part 23 Mode selection lever 24 Menu button 25 Cursor operation board 26 Wireless tag reader 32 Wireless tag 41 Aperture 43 CPU
46 CCD
53 Image signal processing circuit 54 SDRAM
58 Flash ROM
61 Condition area 70a-70c Menu screen

Claims (6)

A wireless tag reader that captures the shooting conditions from the wireless tag storing the shooting conditions;
Storage means for storing the captured shooting conditions;
An imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging unit that performs imaging of a subject based on captured imaging conditions.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit is capable of storing a plurality of the shooting conditions and includes a selection unit that allows a user to select a plurality of stored shooting conditions.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the imaging condition includes image data indicating the condition, and image display means for displaying the image data when the plurality of imaging conditions are selected.   2. The imaging unit according to claim 1, wherein the imaging unit executes imaging under preset auto imaging conditions or default imaging conditions set at the time of purchase of the camera before capturing the imaging conditions by the wireless tag reader. 4. The imaging device according to any one of 3 to 3.   5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising default return means for resetting the shooting conditions stored in the storage means to return to the default shooting conditions set when the camera was purchased. Imaging device.   6. The selection unit according to claim 2, wherein the selection unit has a configuration capable of switching the plurality of shooting conditions in stages, and the plurality of shooting conditions are assigned to each stage. The imaging device described in 1.

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