JP2006100962A - Digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital camera capable of enhancing the convenience of users by restricting the processings on tentative image data obtained by tentative photographing immediately prior to out of focus photographing. <P>SOLUTION: The digital camera 2 carries out the tentative photographing for range-finding a distance from an object, immediately before performance of the out-focus photographing wherein the principal object is focused and the background is defocused. A media controller 48 records main image data obtained by the out-focus photographing and the tentative image data obtained by the tentative photographing to a memory card 49, while distinguishing the main image data from the tentative photographing data, and discriminates whether image data are the tentative image data and whether the tentative image data attached to the image data are recorded, when reading the image data from the memory card 49. An LCD driver 44 controls an LCD 17 so as not to reproduce and display images represented by the image data, discriminated as being the tentative image data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital camera that performs provisional shooting for measuring a distance from a subject immediately before performing out-of-focus shooting in which a main subject is focused and a background is blurred.

  2. Description of the Related Art Digital cameras that convert subject light imaged by a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD into digital image data and record it in a built-in memory or a memory card have become widespread. Some of such digital cameras can perform out-of-focus shooting in which a main subject is focused and a background is blurred.

  As a digital camera capable of out-of-focus photography as described above, even if a lens with a short focal length and a small aperture diameter is used, the main subject is not affected by the position of the main subject. In order to obtain a naturally blurred image according to the distance to the subject, detection means for detecting the main subject based on the distance to the plurality of subjects on the photographing surface, and a portion other than the portion where the detected main subject exists There has been proposed a digital camera provided with image processing means for performing image processing for blurring image data obtained by photographing a photographing surface in accordance with the distance to the main subject, and blurring as the distance from the main subject increases. (See Patent Document 1).

On the other hand, immediately before out-of-focus shooting, stroboscopic shooting is performed at the maximum sync speed, or tentative shooting is performed at an infinite focus position, and the distance to the subject is measured from the temporary image data obtained by this temporary shooting, The inventor has devised a technique for performing an out-focus process on the main image data obtained by the subsequent out-of-focus imaging based on the distance measurement result.
JP-A-11-266388

  In the above technique devised by the present inventor, not only main image data obtained by out-of-focus shooting but also temporary image data which is necessary only at the time of out-focus processing and is unnecessary thereafter is recorded. For this reason, when an image is reproduced and displayed on the provided liquid crystal display, there is a risk that a temporary image that is not worth viewing will be displayed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a digital camera capable of improving user convenience by regulating the handling of temporary image data obtained by temporary shooting immediately before out-of-focus shooting. The purpose is to do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention performs provisional shooting for measuring the distance to the subject immediately before performing out-of-focus shooting in which the main subject is focused and the background is blurred. In a digital camera comprising main image data obtained by out-of-focus shooting, a recording medium on which the temporary image data obtained by temporary shooting is recorded, and image display means for reproducing and displaying the image, the book When the image data and the temporary image data are discriminated and recorded on the recording medium, and the image data is read from the recording medium, whether the image data is the temporary image data and whether the temporary image data is the temporary data. Data input / output control means for determining whether or not image data is recorded accompanying the image data, and the image data determined to be the temporary image data Image so as not to reproduce and display that, characterized in that a display control means for controlling said image display means.

  When the display control means reproduces and displays on the image display means the image represented by the main image data determined that the temporary image data is recorded accompanying the temporary image data, the temporary image data It is preferable to display the fact that it is recorded together.

  The data input / output control means also receives the temporary image data together with the main image data when an instruction to delete the main image data, which is determined to be recorded accompanying the temporary image data, is input. It is preferable to delete. Alternatively, the data input / output control means does not delete the main image data when an instruction to delete the main image data determined to be recorded accompanying the temporary image data is input. It is preferable to delete only temporary image data.

  In addition, the data input / output control unit calculates the number of storable images from the remaining capacity of the recording medium obtained by subtracting the amount of the temporary image data during the out-of-focus shooting, and the display control unit calculates the calculated shooting It is preferable to display the possible number on the image display means.

  Further, the image processing apparatus further includes a difference calculation unit that calculates a difference between the main image data and the temporary image data, and the display control unit notifies the image when the calculation result of the difference is larger than a preset value. In addition to displaying on the display means, the data input / output control means does not record the temporary image data but only the main image data on the recording medium when the calculation result of the difference is larger than a preset value. It is preferable to record.

  According to the digital camera of the present invention, when the main image data obtained by out-of-focus shooting and the temporary image data obtained by temporary shooting are distinguished and recorded on a recording medium, and the image data is read from the recording medium, the image data Data input / output control means for determining whether the image data is temporary image data, and whether the image data is recorded with accompanying temporary image data, and image data determined to be temporary image data Since the display control means for controlling the image display means is provided so as to prevent the displayed image from being reproduced and displayed, there is no problem that even a temporary image not worth viewing is reproduced and displayed. Therefore, user convenience can be improved.

  1 and 2, a lens barrel 11 for holding an imaging lens 10 is incorporated in the front surface of a digital camera 2 to which the present invention is applied. A release button 12, a power switch 13, and a mode dial 14 are provided on the top surface of the digital camera 2, and a memory card slot into which a memory card 49 (see FIG. 3) is detachably loaded is covered on the side surface. A lid 15 is provided.

  A finder eyepiece window 16, a liquid crystal display (LCD) 17, and an operation unit 18 that constitute an electronic viewfinder are provided on the back surface of the digital camera 2. The LCD 17 displays captured images, so-called through images, and various menu screens. The operation unit 18 is a zoom operation button 19 for changing the zoom lens of the imaging lens 10 to the wide side or the tele side, or a menu button 20 that is operated when a menu screen is displayed on the LCD 17 or when a selection content is determined. And a cross key 21 for moving the cursor on the menu screen.

  In the digital camera 2, a still image shooting mode for shooting a still image, a moving image shooting mode for shooting a movie, a playback mode for displaying the shot image on the LCD 17, and a setting mode for performing various settings can be selected. Switching between these modes is performed by rotating the mode dial 14. In the moving image shooting mode, surrounding sound is recorded through a microphone (not shown) along with shooting of a moving image.

  The digital camera 2 can perform out-of-focus shooting in which the main subject is focused and the background is blurred. This out-of-focus shooting mode is set to enable / disable by operating the operation unit 18 in the still image shooting mode, and becomes a normal shooting mode when the setting is not made.

  When the out-focus shooting mode is set, the digital camera 2 performs provisional shooting for measuring the distance to the subject immediately before the out-focus shooting. Temporary shooting is a flash shooting at the maximum sync speed or a shooting at an infinite focus position, and the distance to the subject is measured based on the temporary image data obtained by the temporary shooting.

  In the digital camera 2, it is possible to automatically select whether to perform strobe shooting as temporary shooting or shooting at an infinite focus position according to the exposure amount of the subject. As a method for measuring the distance to the subject, when performing strobe shooting, the brightness component for each pixel of the temporary image data is used as an alternative to the distance index, and when shooting at an infinite focus position, The spatial frequency components of the image data and the main image data obtained by out-of-focus imaging are compared, and the comparison result is used as a substitute for the distance index.

  The release button 12 is a two-stage push switch. After the framing of the subject by the LCD 17, when the release button 12 is lightly pressed (half-pressed), various shooting preparation processes such as automatic exposure adjustment (AE) and automatic focus adjustment (AF) are performed. In this state, when the release button 12 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 49.

  In FIG. 3 showing the electrical configuration of the digital camera 2, a lens motor 30 is connected to the imaging lens 10. An iris motor 32 is connected to the diaphragm 31. These motors 30 and 32 are stepping motors, are controlled in operation by drive pulses transmitted from motor drivers 34 and 35 connected to the CPU 33, and perform photographing preparation processing in response to half-pressing of the release button 12.

  The lens motor 30 moves the zoom lens of the imaging lens 10 to the wide side or the tele side in conjunction with the operation of the zoom operation button 19. Further, the focus lens of the imaging lens 10 is moved in accordance with the subject distance and zoom lens zooming, and the focus adjustment is performed so that the shooting conditions are optimized. The iris motor 32 operates the diaphragm 31 to perform exposure adjustment.

  Behind the imaging lens 10 is a CCD 36 that captures the subject light that has passed through the imaging lens 10. A timing generator (TG) 37 controlled by the CPU 33 is connected to the CCD 36, and the shutter speed of the electronic shutter is determined by a timing signal (clock pulse) input from the TG 37.

  The imaging signal output from the CCD 36 is input to a correlated double sampling circuit (CDS) 38, and is output as R, G, B image data that accurately corresponds to the accumulated charge amount of each cell of the CCD 36. The image data output from the CDS 38 is amplified by an amplifier (AMP) 39 and converted into digital image data by an A / D converter (A / D) 40.

  The image input controller 41 is connected to the CPU 33 via the bus 42, and controls the CCD 36, CDS 38, AMP 39, and A / D 40 in accordance with a control command from the CPU 33. The image data output from the A / D 40 is temporarily stored in the SDRAM 43 and displayed on the LCD 17 as a through image via the LCD driver 44.

  The image signal processing circuit 45 reads out the image data from the SDRAM 43 and performs various image processing such as gradation conversion, white balance correction, γ correction processing, and out-focus processing performed after out-of-focus shooting, and this image data is stored in the SDRAM 43 again. Store. The YC conversion processing circuit 46 reads out the image data subjected to various processes by the image signal processing circuit 45 from the SDRAM 43, and converts it into a luminance signal Y and color difference signals Cr and Cb. The compression / decompression processing circuit 47 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 49 via the media controller 48.

  In addition to the release button 12 and the operation unit 18 described above, an EEPROM 50 is connected to the CPU 33. The EEPROM 50 stores various control programs and setting information. The CPU 33 reads these pieces of information from the EEPROM 50 to the SDRAM 43, which is a working memory, and executes various processes.

  The bus 42 detects an exposure amount, that is, whether the shutter speed of the electronic shutter and the aperture value of the aperture 31 are appropriate for shooting, and detects whether the white balance is appropriate for shooting. 51, an AF detection circuit 52 that detects whether or not the focus adjustment of the imaging lens 10 is appropriate for shooting, a strobe control circuit 54 that controls the operation of the strobe device 53, and a communication I that transmits / receives data to / from an external device. / F55 and a difference calculation circuit 56 for calculating the difference between the main image data and the temporary image data are connected.

  The AE / AWB and AF detection circuits 51 and 52 sequentially transmit detection results to the CPU 33 via the bus 42 when the release button 12 is half-pressed. The CPU 33 controls the operations of the imaging lens 10, the diaphragm 31, and the CCD 36 based on the detection results transmitted from these detection circuits 51 and 52.

  The media controller 48 distinguishes the main image data obtained by out-of-focus photography and the temporary image data obtained by provisional photography and records them on the memory card 49. For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, the main image data and the temporary image data are stored in the same file “100_FUJI”, the title of the file name of the main image data is “DSCF...”, And the temporary image data. And “DSC_”, the same number as the main image data is assigned to the temporary image data accompanying the main image data. Alternatively, as shown in (B), the file names of the main image data and the temporary image data have the same name “DSCF...”, The main image data is the file “100_FUJI”, and the temporary image data is the file “100_FUJ_ The temporary image data associated with the main image data is assigned the same number as the main image data.

  When the media controller 48 reads image data from the memory card 49, the media controller 48 determines whether the image data is temporary image data and whether the temporary image data is recorded with the image data. . This determination is made by comparing the title of the file with the number when the main image data and the temporary image data are recorded as shown in FIG. 4A, and stored in the case shown in FIG. 4B. This is done by checking the folder name and number.

  The media controller 48 deletes the temporary image data together with the main image data when a deletion command of the image data determined to be recorded accompanying the temporary image data is input from the operation unit 18. Alternatively, only the temporary image data is deleted without deleting the main image data. Further, the media controller 48 calculates the number of storable images from the remaining capacity of the memory card 49 obtained by subtracting the temporary image data during out-of-focus shooting. For example, half of the shootable number calculated during normal shooting is calculated as the shootable number during out-of-focus shooting.

  Furthermore, the media controller 48 determines that a temporary image appropriate for a camera shake, subject blur, exposure abnormality, or the like is obtained when the calculation result of the difference between the main image data and the temporary image data by the difference calculation circuit 56 is larger than a preset value. When the data is not obtained), only the main image data is recorded on the memory card 49 without recording the temporary image data.

  Under the playback mode, the LCD driver 44 controls the LCD 17 so that the image represented by the image data determined to be temporary image data is skipped and is not reproduced and displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the LCD driver 44 reproduces and displays on the LCD 17 image data that is determined to be recorded with accompanying temporary image data, that is, an image represented by the main image data. An “OF” icon 60 is attached to display that the temporary image data is recorded accompanying the icon.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, the LCD driver 44 causes the media controller 48 to execute the main command when a deletion command for image data that is determined to be accompanied by temporary image data is input from the operation unit 18. If only the temporary image data is deleted without deleting the image data, a message 61 “Temporary image data will be deleted” is attached. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the LCD driver 44 displays the shootable number 62 calculated by the media controller 48 on the LCD 17 together with the through image at the time of out-of-focus shooting.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8, the LCD driver 44 determines that “appropriate data is obtained when the calculation result of the difference between the main image data and the temporary image data by the difference calculation circuit 56 is larger than a preset value. An error message 63 “Not received” is attached and a message to that effect is displayed on the LCD 17.

  Next, the operation of the digital camera 2 having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, when shooting a subject with the digital camera 2, the power switch 13 is operated to turn on the digital camera 2, and the mode dial 14 is operated to select a still image shooting mode or a moving image shooting mode. .

  Under the photographing mode, subject light incident through the imaging lens 10 and the diaphragm 31 is photoelectrically converted by the CCD 36 and sampled by the CDS 38. The image data output from the CDS 38 is amplified by the AMP 39 and converted into digital image data by the A / D 40.

  The digitally converted image data is subjected to various types of image processing by the image signal processing circuit 45 and then sequentially stored in the SDRAM 43 via the image input controller 41 and displayed on the LCD 17 as a through image. When the release button 12 is half-pressed in this state, the exposure amount, white balance, and focus are detected by the AE / AWB detection circuit 51 and the AF detection circuit 52, and shooting preparation processing is performed based on the detection result.

  When shooting is executed by fully pressing the release button 12 after shooting preparation processing, in the still image shooting mode, the image data stored in the SDRAM 43 at that time is read to the YC conversion processing circuit 46 and the luminance signal Y And the color difference signals Cr and Cb, the compression processing is performed by the compression / decompression processing circuit 47 and recorded in the memory card 49 via the media controller 48.

  On the other hand, under the moving image shooting mode, image data is recorded at a constant frame rate (for example, 30 frames / second) until the release button 12 is fully pressed again. At the same time, ambient sounds are recorded via the microphone. The sound recorded by the microphone is recorded on the memory card 49 in association with the image data.

  In FIG. 9, in the out-focus shooting mode, the media controller 48 calculates the number of shootable images from the remaining capacity of the memory card 49 obtained by subtracting the amount of temporary image data, and the LCD driver 44 calculates the calculated number of shootable images 62. Is displayed on the LCD 17.

  When the release button 12 is pressed halfway, depending on the exposure amount of the subject, whether to perform flash shooting as temporary shooting or to perform shooting at an infinite focus position is automatically selected, and temporary shooting is performed. Then, temporary shooting is performed by fully pressing the release button 12. The temporary image data obtained in this way is once latched in the SDRAM 43. Immediately after the provisional shooting, out-of-focus shooting is automatically performed, and the main image data obtained thereby is similarly latched once in the SDRAM 43.

  After the out-of-focus shooting, the main image data and the temporary image data latched in the SDRAM 43 are read out to the difference calculation circuit 56 and the difference is calculated. When the calculation result of the difference is smaller than a preset value, the media controller 48 distinguishes the main image data and the temporary image data and records them on the memory card 49.

  On the other hand, if the difference calculation result is larger than a preset value, the LCD driver 44 displays an error message 63 on the LCD 17, and the media controller 48 does not record temporary image data, but only the main image data. Recorded in the memory card 49.

  10 and 11, in the playback mode, first, an image is read from the memory card 49 via the media controller 48. At this time, the media controller 48 determines whether or not the image data to be read is temporary image data, and whether or not the temporary image data is recorded with the image data.

  If it is determined that the image data is temporary image data, the LCD driver 44 skips the image represented by the temporary image data and reads the next image data. On the other hand, if it is determined that the image data is not temporary image data, and the image data is determined to be accompanying image data, the LCD driver 44 attaches an icon 60 to reproduce and display the image data. When it is determined that the temporary image data is not accompanying image data, the icon 60 is not added and normal reproduction display is performed. This reproduction display is continued until the next image is selected by the operation unit 18 or the mode dial 14 is rotated.

  When an image data deletion command is input by the operation unit 18 while an image is being reproduced and displayed, the image data is recorded along with temporary image data as shown in FIG. If the image data is determined to have been processed, the media controller 48 deletes the temporary image data together with the main image data. Alternatively, as shown in (B), the LCD driver 44 attaches a message 61, and the media controller 48 does not delete the main image data but deletes only the temporary image data.

  As described above, the main image data and the temporary image data at the time of out-of-focus shooting are distinguished and recorded on the memory card 49, and when the image data is read from the memory card 49, whether or not the image data is the temporary image data. In addition, the media controller 48 determines whether or not the temporary image data is recorded with the image data, so that the image represented by the image data determined to be the temporary image data is not reproduced and displayed. In addition, since the LCD 17 is controlled by the LCD driver 44, there is no problem that even a provisional image not worth viewing is reproduced and displayed. Therefore, user convenience can be improved.

  Further, when the image represented by the image data determined to be recorded with the provisional image data is reproduced and displayed on the LCD 17, the icon 60 is also displayed. It is possible to easily grasp whether or not the image can be subjected to out-focus processing.

  In addition, when a deletion command for image data determined to be recorded accompanying the temporary image data is input, the temporary image data is deleted together with the main image data, or the main image data is not deleted, Since only the temporary image data is deleted, the temporary image data can be surely deleted without making the user aware of whether or not the temporary image data associated therewith remains after the main image data is deleted.

  Further, at the time of out-of-focus shooting, the number of shootable images is calculated from the remaining capacity of the memory card 49 obtained by subtracting the amount of temporary image data, and the calculated number of shootable images 62 is displayed on the LCD 17. It is possible to reliably grasp the possible number.

  Further, a difference between the main image data and the temporary image data is calculated, and when the calculation result is larger than a preset value, an error message 63 is displayed on the LCD 17 and the temporary image data is not recorded. Since only the image data is recorded in the memory card 49, it is possible to prevent provisional image data having no utility value from being recorded during the out-focus processing.

It is a front external perspective view of a digital camera to which the present invention is applied. It is a back external view of a digital camera. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a digital camera. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example which distinguishes and records this image data and temporary image data, (A) shows the example distinguished by changing the crown of a file name, (B) distinguishes by changing a folder name Each example is shown. It is a figure which shows the state which reproduced and displayed the main image data on which temporary image data was recorded accompanying on LCD. It is a figure which shows the display state of LCD at the time of deleting only temporary image data, without deleting this image data. It is a figure which shows the state which displayed the imaging | photography possible number on LCD at the time of out-focus imaging | photography. It is a figure which shows the display state of LCD when the calculation result of the difference of this image data and temporary image data is larger than the preset value. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence at the time of out-focus imaging | photography. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence in reproduction | regeneration mode. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence when a deletion command is input, (A) shows the case where temporary image data is deleted with this image data, and (B) shows the case where only temporary image data is deleted.

Explanation of symbols

2 Digital Camera 10 Imaging Lens 17 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
33 CPU
36 CCD
44 LCD driver 48 Media controller 49 Memory card 56 Difference calculation circuit 60 Icon 61 Message 62 Number of storable pictures 63 Error message

Claims (6)

Immediately before performing out-of-focus shooting that focuses on the main subject and blurs the background, a temporary shooting is performed to measure the distance from the subject.
In a digital camera comprising a recording medium on which the main image data obtained by the out-of-focus photographing and the temporary image data obtained by the provisional photographing are recorded, and an image display means for reproducing and displaying the image,
When the main image data and the temporary image data are separately recorded on the recording medium and the image data is read from the recording medium, whether or not the image data is the temporary image data, and the image data Data input / output control means for determining whether or not the provisional image data is recorded along with the temporary image data;
A digital camera comprising: display control means for controlling the image display means so as not to reproduce and display an image represented by the image data determined to be the temporary image data.   The display control means accompanies the provisional image data when the image display means reproduces and displays the image represented by the main image data determined to be recorded with the provisional image data. The digital camera according to claim 1, further displaying the fact that it is recorded.   The data input / output control means deletes the temporary image data together with the main image data when a deletion command of the main image data determined to be recorded accompanying the temporary image data is input. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the digital camera is a digital camera.   The data input / output control means does not delete the main image data when an instruction to delete the main image data determined that the temporary image data has been recorded is input, and does not delete the temporary image. The digital camera according to claim 1 or 2, wherein only the data is deleted. The data input / output control means calculates the number of shootable images from the remaining capacity of the recording medium obtained by subtracting the amount of the temporary image data during the out-of-focus shooting,
5. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays the calculated number of shootable images on the image display unit. A difference calculating means for calculating a difference between the main image data and the temporary image data;
When the calculation result of the difference is larger than a preset value, the display control means displays that fact on the image display means,
The data input / output control unit records only the main image data on the recording medium without recording the temporary image data when the calculation result of the difference is larger than a preset value. The digital camera according to claim 1.

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