JP2005167889A - Photographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a photographic device, loaded with a portable record medium, such as a memory card capable of taking a photograph at any time, when the user desires to take a photograph. <P>SOLUTION: A partition of a plurality of stages in the shape of a rail is provided at an inner wall side surface of a medium loaded chamber 12. An electrical contact 131 for accessing to memory cards 113 is arranged at the lowermost surface, and image data are recorded in the memory cards 113, located at the lowermost stage. In addition, a sensor 132 for detecting the number of loaded memory cards 113 is arranged at the end portion of the medium loaded chamber 13. Upon the receipt of detection result of the sensor 132, the number of the memory cards is counted and displayed on a display screen 150a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention includes a medium loading chamber in which a portable recording medium is loaded, performs photographing according to a photographing operation, obtains photographing data, and records the image data on a recording medium loaded in the medium loading chamber. The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus.

Conventionally, a PC card, a memory card smaller than the PC card, and the like are known as portable recording media. There are two types of PC cards, a single slot type and a double slot type, and a connector that can be fitted to either of these two types of PC cards has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1). . Also, a slot corresponding to both a PC card and a memory card has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP-A-10-289772 JP 2001-273465 A

  Incidentally, some photographing apparatuses are loaded with a portable recording medium such as a memory card. In such a photographing apparatus, if there are a plurality of memory cards at hand, recording of the memory card at hand can be performed by exchanging one of the plurality of memory cards with the memory card loaded in the medium loading chamber. The number of shots for the capacity is secured.

  However, if the memory card is carried separately from the photographing apparatus, there is a problem that the memory card is easily lost because it is quite small.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a photographing apparatus in which the risk of losing a plurality of memory cards at hand is reduced.

An imaging device of the present invention that achieves the above object includes a medium loading chamber in which a portable recording medium is loaded, and performs shooting according to a shooting operation to obtain shooting data, and the image data is loaded into the medium loading chamber. In an imaging device for recording on a recording medium that is
In the medium loading chamber, a plurality of recording media are loaded.

  According to the photographing apparatus, the plurality of recording media are loaded in the medium loading chamber. Then, a plurality of recording media are loaded in the medium loading chamber, and the plurality of recording media are carried together with the photographing apparatus. As a result, when placing a plurality of recording media at hand, the recording medium is not lost as long as the medium loading chamber exhibits the function of a storage box and the recording medium is loaded in the medium loading chamber. .

  Here, even if the medium loading chamber is provided with an electrical contact for accessing each of a plurality of recording media, the medium loading chamber is provided with an electrical contact for accessing only one of the recording media. It may be a thing.

In the case where the medium loading chamber is provided with an electrical contact for accessing each of a plurality of recording media, and particularly provided with an electrical contact for accessing each of the two recording media,
The recording medium is formed with an electrical contact for accessing the recording medium only on the surface that is one of the front and back surfaces of the recording medium,
In the medium loading chamber, two recording media are loaded, and when the recording media are loaded with their back surfaces facing each other, they come into contact with electrical contacts formed on the surface of each recording medium. It is preferable that an electrical contact for accessing the recording medium is provided.

  Thus, if it is only necessary to secure the capacity of two of the plurality of recording media, the medium loading chamber socket so far is slightly thickened, and further, the medium loading chamber By providing an electrical contact for accessing each recording medium in contact with the electrical contact formed on the surface of each recording medium when the recording medium is loaded with the back surfaces facing each other, two sheets can be used. The recording capacity of the portable recording medium is ensured. With this configuration, a small medium loading chamber that takes up less space than the provision of another medium loading chamber in the photographing apparatus is realized. As a result, a ripple effect that the photographing apparatus is also reduced in size can be obtained.

In addition, when the medium loading chamber is provided with an electrical contact that accesses only one of the recording media among the plurality of recording media,
The recording medium is formed with electrical contacts for accessing the recording medium,
The medium loading chamber preferably includes an electrical contact for accessing only the recording medium inserted at a predetermined position among the plurality of inserted recording media.

   When the medium loading chamber has an electrical contact for accessing only the recording medium inserted in a predetermined position among the plurality of inserted recording media, the recording inserted in the predetermined position Image data is recorded only on the medium. The other recording medium becomes a spare, and when the recording medium inserted in the predetermined position is removed and the spare is inserted in the predetermined position, the image data is recorded on the spare recording medium. . If the use of the exchangeable insertion of the recording media in this way, all the recording media loaded in the imaging apparatus are effectively used, and the number of images to be taken is ensured as many as the number of recording media. .

Furthermore, in the case where the medium loading chamber is provided with an electrical contact that accesses only one of the plurality of recording media,
It is desirable to include a number detection unit that detects the number of recording media loaded in the medium loading chamber and a number display unit that displays the number of recording media detected by the number detection unit.

  Then, the number of recording media is confirmed on the number display section, and it can be immediately understood how many shots are left.

  According to the imaging apparatus of the present invention, an imaging apparatus is realized in which the risk of losing a plurality of memory cards at hand is reduced. In addition, by loading a plurality of recording media into the medium loading chamber, an imaging apparatus in which the number of images taken by this imaging apparatus is increased is realized.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an appearance of a digital camera 1 corresponding to a photographing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) shows a front view, and FIG. 1 (b) shows a rear view.

  A lens barrel 10 is provided at the center of the camera body 1 a of the digital camera shown in FIG. 1A, and a finder 11 is provided above the lens barrel 10. A flash light emission window 12 is provided on the side of the finder 11, and when the object field brightness is low, a flash light is emitted from the flash light emission window 12 and photographing is performed.

  A display screen 150a that also functions as the number display unit of the present invention is provided on the back side shown in FIG. 1B, and this display screen 150a is also used as a viewfinder. While viewing the subject displayed on the display screen 150a, the release button 165 provided on the upper surface of the camera body 1a is pressed to take a picture. In addition to the release button 165, a cross key 161, a menu / OK button 162, a cancel key 163, and a playback / photographing mode changeover switch 164 are provided as operation units on the back side.

  The digital camera 1 of this embodiment includes a medium loading chamber 13 in which a memory card 113 that is a portable recording medium is loaded, and obtains photographing data by photographing a subject captured by a photographing optical system in accordance with a photographing operation. The image data is recorded on a memory card 113 loaded in the medium loading chamber 13, and the medium loading chamber 13 is loaded with a plurality of memory cards 113 as shown in FIG. It is.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the medium loading chamber 13 in which a plurality of memory cards 113 are loaded.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of partitions 13a... 13e are provided in a rail shape, and each memory card 113 is loaded in each adjacent partition. The memory card 113 loaded in these partitions 13a... 13e is formed with electrical contacts 1132 for accessing the memory card 113, and the medium loading chamber 13 has a plurality of inserted memory cards 13a. 13e is provided with an electrical contact 131 for accessing only the memory card 13e inserted at the lowermost position here. Further, a notch 133 is provided at the upper end of the medium loading chamber 13 so that the memory card 113 can be taken out smoothly. By inserting a fingertip into the notch 133, the memory card 113 can be taken out smoothly. Here, the electrical contact 131 for accessing only the memory card 113 inserted in the lowermost stage 13e is provided on the lower surface side of the medium loading chamber 13, but the position where this electrical contact is provided is on the uppermost surface side. May be between the lowermost surface and the uppermost surface. In addition, although an electrical contact may be provided for each adjacent partition, a medium loading chamber 13 is manufactured so that as many memory cards 113 as possible can be loaded by utilizing the space that has been in the camera body 1a until now. Therefore, if an electrical contact is provided in each partition 13a... 13e, the medium loading chamber 13 will not fit in the allowable space in the camera body 1a. For this reason, here, the electrical contact 130 is provided only in the lowermost stage 13e, and the memory card loaded in the other stage is used as a spare, and one of those spares is replaced with the lowermost stage. Thus, it is assumed that image data is effectively recorded on all the memory cards 113. In this way, the digital camera 1 in which the required recording capacity is ensured without increasing the size of the camera body 1a is realized.

  If it is assumed that the memory card is to be replaced, it is more convenient for the user to display how many memory cards 113 are loaded in the medium loading chamber 13 on the display screen 150a.

  In this example, a line sensor 132 in which sensors are arranged in a one-dimensional manner as the number detection unit referred to in the present invention is installed in any one of the wall surface parts (here, a terminal part) of the medium loading chamber 13, and the line sensor It is detected by 132 whether or not the memory card 113 is loaded for each partition. In addition, the number of memory cards detected by the line sensor corresponding to the number detection unit is displayed on the display screen 150a by a system control circuit unit, which will be described later, which corresponds to the number display unit according to the present invention. Here, a line sensor is described as an example of the detection switch, but a plunger type or rotary type mechanical switch may be used. The configuration of the number detection unit and the number display unit according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the digital camera 1 that is a photographing apparatus.

  The digital camera 1 is controlled by the system circuit control unit 100 in an integrated manner. A typical example of the system circuit control unit 100 is a microcomputer including a CPU, a memory, an input / output unit, and a bus. The microcomputer performs processing according to the procedure of a program stored in the memory. Run to control the operation of this digital camera.

  Before describing the configuration of the number detection unit and the number display unit with reference to FIG. 3, the flow of image data from when the digital camera 1 is photographed until image data is recorded on the memory card 113 will be described. Keep it.

  First, since the subject captured by the imaging unit 101 including the photographing lens incorporated in the lens barrel 10 is displayed as a through image on the display screen 150a, the flow of the through image will be described, and then the photographing operation will be described. Accordingly, the flow until image data is recorded on the memory card 113 will be described.

  Image data representing a subject captured by the imaging unit 101 is output to the image generation unit 102 at predetermined times, and after YC conversion or the like is performed by the image generation unit 102, the image display unit 150 performs the YC conversion or the like. The applied image data is supplied. The image display unit 150 receives image data representing the subject captured by the imaging unit 101 at each predetermined time, and displays an image based on the image on the display screen 150a as a through image. When the release button 165 in the operation unit 160 is pressed while viewing the through image displayed on the display screen 150a, the system control circuit unit 100 receives it as a shooting operation, and receives the image capturing operation from the system control unit 100. A signal indicating a shooting instruction is supplied. The imaging unit 101 receives the signal and starts exposure of the imaging device, and the exposure is continued until an exposure end signal is supplied from the system control circuit 100. When an exposure end signal is supplied from the system control circuit 100 after a predetermined time, the image data generated by the image sensor included in the imaging unit 101 is output to the image generation unit 102 and output to the image generation unit 102. The image data is subjected to YC conversion and compression processing. The YC converted and further compressed image data is recorded on the memory card 113 at the bottom of the plurality of memory cards controlled by the memory control circuit 104 and loaded in the medium loading chamber.

  The digital camera 1 has a battery loading chamber. When the battery 200 is loaded in the battery chamber, power is supplied to each unit shown in FIG.

  The above is the flow until image data is recorded on the memory card 113 in accordance with the shooting operation.

  As described above, when image data is recorded on the lowermost memory card 113 in accordance with the photographing operation, most of the recording area in the lowermost memory card is used for image data representing the already photographed image. As a result, there is no area for recording new image data. In such a case, the number of spares is displayed under the control of the system control circuit unit 100 which becomes a part of the number display unit so that the spare memory card 113 can be immediately replaced. As described above, since a plurality of memory cards 113 can be loaded into the medium loading chamber 13, the spare memory card 113 can be replaced by displaying the number of spares on the display screen 150a. The photographer is notified that shooting can be performed without any problem at any time. That is, the same effect as that of increasing the capacity of the digital camera by displaying the number of spares on the display screen 150a to indicate to the photographer that there are many spares and allowing the photographer to perform replacement. Trying to pull out.

  The medium loading chamber 13 is provided with a number detection unit including a system control circuit unit 100 and a line sensor 131, and a system control circuit unit 100 in which a signal detected by each sensor of the line sensor 131 also corresponds to the number display unit. Has been supplied to. In the system control circuit unit 100, the number of memory cards 113 is counted by an internal counter based on these detection signals, and the spare number is displayed on the display screen 150a of the image display unit 150. The system control circuit unit 100 and the image display unit 150 correspond to the number display unit.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display screen 150 a of the image display unit 150.

  FIG. 4 shows a display example in the case where the medium loading chamber permits loading of five recording media.

  It is displayed that there are five memory cards in the medium loading chamber 13 assuming that the memory cards 113 are loaded in all the partitions 13a to 13e of the medium loading chamber 13 shown in FIG. When the memory card 113 loaded in the lowermost stage is replaced with the memory card 113 loaded in the other stage in the state of the display screen 150a, a display is displayed as shown in FIG. It is displayed that the number of memory cards including spares is four. In this way, the photographer visually recognizes the display screen 150a and visually recognizes the spare number of memory cards.

  Note that the memory card filled with the already-captured image data may be reloaded into an empty partition among the plurality of partitions in the medium loading chamber 13, so that the medium loading chamber 13 is built into the digital camera. It is also used as a storage box.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another embodiment.

  FIG. 5 shows an example in which two recording media are loaded as an example of a plurality of sheets.

  The configuration is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and only the medium loading chamber 130 is different.

  In FIG. 1, loading of a plurality of memory cards is permitted, but in the example of FIG. 1, it is replaced with one that allows loading of two recording media.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the memory card 113 has an electrical contact 1132 for accessing the memory card only on the front surface which is one of the front and back surfaces of the memory card 113. Utilizing this, the size of the medium loading chamber has been slightly changed. In the medium loading chamber 130, two memory cards 113 are loaded, and when the memory cards 113 are loaded with their back surfaces facing each other, electrical contacts 1132 formed on the front surface of each memory card. And an electrical contact for accessing each memory card.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the configuration of the medium loading chamber 130.

  FIG. 6A is a perspective view of the appearance of the medium loading chamber as viewed obliquely from above, and FIG. 6B is a cross-sectional view of the medium loading chamber cut along the height direction.

  As shown in FIG. 6, when the memory card 113 is loaded with the back surfaces facing each other, the electrical contact 131 </ b> A for accessing each memory card 113 in contact with the electrical contact 1132 formed on the front surface of each memory card 113. 131B are provided on both the upper and lower surfaces. In this way, even if the medium loading chamber 130 is not so large, it is only necessary to provide the electrical contact 131A on the top surface, and image data can be selectively recorded on any one of the memory cards 113. The

  Although it may be as shown in FIG. 6, there is a case in which the electrical contact does not come to the surface with this configuration, and it is difficult to configure a detection unit that detects that the electrical contact is installed.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example in which the detection unit 132A is added and the receiving units 134A and 134B are provided so as not to be loaded by mistake.

  In FIG. 7, taking advantage of the fact that some memory cards have a chamfered portion 1131A, receiving portions 134A and 134B for receiving the chamfered portion 1131A are provided on the medium loading chamber side, and these receiving portions are provided. Only when 134A and 134B accept the chamfered portion 1131A, the two memory cards 1131 are allowed to be loaded into the medium loading chamber 130A. Here, as shown in FIG. 7, when two memory cards 1131 are loaded with the back surfaces of the memory cards 1131 facing each other, the chamfered portions 1131 </ b> A of both memory cards 1131 have different end portions. The receiving portions 134A and 134B for receiving the chamfered portions are provided with steps by utilizing the fact that they appear in FIG.

  Further, a detection switch is provided at a portion where the edge abuts by utilizing the fact that the edge portion of the memory card opposite to the receiving portion appears.

  In this way, the two memory cards 113 are loaded in the medium loading chamber without error, and it is further detected that they are loaded. According to this configuration, a medium loading chamber that is much smaller than two separate media loading chambers is provided, and the method for loading the medium loading chamber is shown to the photographer, improving usability.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the digital camera having the structure of FIG.

  The configuration is the same as that shown in FIG. 3 except that the number of detection switches is changed from a plurality to two.

  In response to detecting that a memory card has been loaded by the number detection unit comprising the two detection switches, the detection display unit comprising the system control circuit 100 and the image display unit 150 displays the memory card loading status. It is displayed on the screen 150a.

  FIG. 9 shows a display example of the display screen.

  When the two memory cards in FIG. 9 are associated with A and B and the two memory cards are loaded, the light emitting portions A and B on the display screen are turned on.

  In this way, the space where the medium loading chamber has been provided so far is reduced by one, and the entire photographing apparatus becomes smaller. Further, in a situation where the recording capacity of two memory cards is sufficient, a photographing apparatus having a larger capacity than that of one memory card is realized, and a photographing apparatus capable of performing photographing without worrying about the number of photographing is realized.

  In the present embodiment, a digital camera is taken as an example of an image capturing apparatus, but the present invention is also applicable to a mobile phone with a camera in which a memory card is loaded.

It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the digital camera which is the imaging device which is one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the medium loading chamber 13 in which the several memory card 113 is loaded. It is a figure which shows the internal structure of the digital camera 1 which is an imaging device. It is a figure which shows the display screen of the spare number. It is a figure which shows another embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the recording medium chamber. It is a figure which shows the example which added the detection part and improved so that it might not load by mistake further. It is a figure which shows the internal structure of the digital camera with the structure of FIG. It is a display example of a display screen.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Digital camera 1a Camera body 10 Lens barrel 11 Finder 12 Flash light emission window 13 Medium loading chamber 131 Electrical contact 132 Line sensor 133 Notch part 100 System control circuit part 101 Imaging part 102 Image generation part 103 Memory control circuit 150 Image display part 150a Display screen

Claims (4)

In a photographing apparatus that includes a medium loading chamber in which a portable recording medium is loaded, performs photographing according to a photographing operation, obtains photographing data, and records the image data on a recording medium loaded in the medium loading chamber ,
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the medium loading chamber is for loading a plurality of recording media. An electrical contact for accessing the recording medium is formed only on the surface that is one of the front and back surfaces of the recording medium.
In the medium loading chamber, two recording media are loaded, and when the recording medium is loaded with the back surfaces facing each other, the medium loading chamber is in contact with the electrical contacts formed on the surface of each recording medium. 2. The photographing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an electrical contact for accessing the recording medium. The recording medium is formed with electrical contacts for accessing the recording medium,
2. The medium loading chamber is provided with an electrical contact for accessing only a recording medium inserted at a predetermined position among a plurality of inserted recording media. Shooting device. A number detection unit for detecting the number of recording media loaded in the medium loading chamber, and a number display unit for displaying the number of recording media detected by the number detection unit. The imaging device according to claim 1.

Images