JP2007028546A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus in which a person to be photographed can surely grasp the state of a shake without increasing manufacturing costs. <P>SOLUTION: A digital camera 2 comprises: an illuminator 14 for irradiating an object with auxiliary photographing light; an illumination control circuit 57 for controlling the operation of the illuminator; an angular velocity sensor 51 for quantitatively detecting the degree of a camera shake in photographing; a shake correcting circuit 56 for applying shape correction to image data; and a shake determination circuit 55 for determining whether the degree of the camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51 is within a range where the shake correction circuit can apply shake correction. In timing when a release button 15 is pressed half, an LED 13 of the illuminator 14 is lighted in a display pattern corresponding to the degree of the camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus having a blur correction function.

As an imaging device, a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera that converts a subject image captured by a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD into digital image data and stores the digital image data in a storage medium such as a built-in memory or a memory card is widely used. Some of such imaging apparatuses have a function of detecting camera shake during shooting and performing blur correction on image data (see Patent Document 1). This Patent Document 1 notifies the photographer of a warning sound or a predetermined display that a shake correction is determined to be unnecessary, such as when a camera shake that cannot be corrected by the shake correction function occurs. Are listed.
JP 2004-205802 A

  As in the case of the camera shake correction camera described in Patent Document 1, when only the photographer is notified of the necessity / unnecessity of camera shake correction, for example, when a cameraman who is unfamiliar with the camera operation is requested to take a picture, There was a risk of ignoring shooting. In addition, it is difficult for the photographed person to confirm the presence / absence of notification, and there is a problem that the photographed person cannot call the photographer's attention.

  As a method for solving the above problem, it is conceivable to provide a display device that notifies the necessity / unnecessity of blur correction at a location that is easy for the subject to visually recognize, but the manufacturing cost is reduced by adding new parts. Another problem arises that leads to an increase.

  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 enables a subject to reliably grasp a blurring state without increasing manufacturing costs.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention converts an imaging signal obtained by imaging subject light into digital image data, and stores the image data in a storage medium. Illumination means for irradiating light, illumination control means for controlling the operation of the illumination means, camera shake detection means for quantitatively detecting the degree of camera shake at the time of photographing, and blur correction for the image data A blur correction unit; and a blur determination unit that determines whether or not a degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detection unit is within a range in which the blur correction unit can perform blur correction. The control unit displays the determination result of the blur determination unit on the illumination unit before photographing the subject.

  The illuminating means preferably includes a plurality of light emitting elements that emit white light.

  It is preferable that the illumination control unit changes a display pattern of the determination result by the illumination unit according to a degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detection unit.

  A release operation unit that causes at least a shooting preparation process including exposure adjustment to be performed by half-pressing, and that the image data is stored in the storage medium by a full-press; and the illumination control unit is configured to be half-pressed by the release operation unit. It is preferable that the determination result is displayed by the illumination means only when it is performed.

  The present invention also provides an illuminating unit that irradiates the subject with photographing auxiliary light in an imaging device that converts an imaging signal obtained by imaging subject light into digital image data and stores the image data in a storage medium. Illumination control means for controlling the operation of the illumination means, camera shake detection means for quantitatively detecting the degree of camera shake during shooting, shake correction means for performing shake correction on the image data, and The image blur calculating means for calculating the degree of image blur occurring in the image represented by the image data from the degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detecting means, and the degree of image blur calculated by the image blur calculating means. A blur determination unit that determines whether or not the blur correction unit can perform blur correction, and the illumination control unit performs the blur determination by the illumination unit after photographing the subject. Means Characterized in that to display the constant results.

  The illuminating means preferably includes a plurality of light emitting elements that emit white light.

  According to the imaging apparatus of the present invention, an illumination unit that irradiates a subject with shooting auxiliary light, an illumination control unit that controls the operation of the illumination unit, and a camera shake detection unit that quantitatively detects the degree of camera shake at the time of shooting. And determining whether or not the degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detecting unit is within a range in which the camera shake correcting unit can perform the camera shake correction. The lighting control means displays the judgment result of the blur judging means on the lighting means before photographing the subject, so that the subject can be sure of the blurring state without increasing the manufacturing cost. Can grasp.

  Also, an illuminating means for irradiating the subject with photographing auxiliary light, an illumination control means for controlling the operation of the illuminating means, a camera shake detecting means for quantitatively detecting the degree of camera shake during photographing, and image data A blur correction unit that performs blur correction, an image blur calculation unit that calculates a degree of image blur generated in the image represented by the image data from the degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detection unit, and an image blur calculation unit; A blur determination unit that determines whether or not the calculated degree of image blur is within a range in which blur correction can be performed by the blur correction unit, and the illumination control unit uses the illumination unit after photographing the subject. Since the determination result of the blur determination unit is displayed, the subject can surely grasp the blur state without increasing the manufacturing cost.

  1 and 2, a lens barrel 11 for holding an imaging lens 10 is incorporated in the front surface of the digital camera 2 to which the first embodiment of the present invention is applied, and a finder objective constituting an electronic viewfinder. A window 12 is provided. In addition, nine LEDs 13 that emit white light are arranged in a lattice pattern, and an illumination device 14 that irradiates a subject with photographing auxiliary light such as strobe light or red-eye reduction light is provided. As will be described in detail later, the lighting device 14 also functions as a display device that displays a blurring state.

  A release button 15 and a mode dial 16 are provided on the upper surface of the digital camera 2, and a lid 17 is provided on the side surface to cover a memory card slot into which a memory card 50 (see FIG. 3) is detachably loaded. It has been.

  A finder eyepiece window 18, a liquid crystal display (LCD) 19, and an operation unit 20 that constitute an electronic viewfinder are provided on the back of the digital camera 2. The LCD 19 displays captured images, so-called through images, and various menu screens. The operation unit 20 includes a power button for turning on / off the power of the digital camera 2, a zoom operation button for changing the zoom lens of the imaging lens 10 to the wide side and the tele side, and displaying the menu screen on the LCD 19, The menu button is operated when determining the selection contents, and a cross key for moving the cursor in the menu screen.

  The digital camera 2 can select a still image shooting mode for shooting still images, a moving image shooting mode for shooting movies, a playback mode for displaying captured images on the LCD 19, and a setting mode for performing various settings. These modes are switched by rotating the mode dial 16. In the moving image shooting mode, surrounding sound is recorded through a microphone (not shown) along with shooting of a moving image.

  The release button 15 is a two-stage push switch. After the framing of the subject by the LCD 19, when the release button 15 is lightly pressed (half-pressed), various photographing preparation processes such as automatic exposure adjustment (AE) and automatic focus adjustment (AF) are performed. In this state, when the release button 15 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 stored in the memory card 50.

  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, which 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 15.

  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. Further, the focus lens (not shown) of the imaging lens 10 is moved in accordance with zooming magnification of the zoom lens, etc., and focus adjustment is performed so that the photographing 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 a subject image 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. The CDS 38 outputs R, G, B image data that accurately corresponds to the amount of charge accumulated in each cell of the CCD 36. The amplifier (AMP) 39 amplifies the image data output from the CDS 38 with a predetermined gain. The A / D converter (A / D) 40 converts the analog image data amplified by the AMP 39 into digital image data.

  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 recorded in the SDRAM 43.

  The image signal processing circuit 44 reads out image data from the SDRAM 43, performs various image processing such as gradation conversion, white balance correction, and γ correction processing, and records the image data in the SDRAM 43 again. The YC conversion processing circuit 45 reads out the image data subjected to various processes by the image signal processing circuit 44 from the SDRAM 43, and converts it into a luminance signal Y and color difference signals Cr and Cb.

  The VRAM 46 is a memory for outputting a through image to the LCD 19 and stores image data that has passed through the image signal processing circuit 44 and the YC conversion processing circuit 45. In the VRAM 46, two frames of memories 46a and 46b are secured so that image data can be written and read in parallel. The image data stored in the VRAM 46 is converted into an analog composite signal by the LCD driver 47 and displayed on the LCD 19 as a through image.

  The compression / decompression processing circuit 48 performs image compression on the image data YC converted by the YC conversion processing circuit 45 in a predetermined compression format (for example, JPEG format). The compressed image data is stored in the memory card 50 via the media controller 49.

  In addition to the release button 15 and the operation unit 20 described above, an angular velocity sensor 51 and an EEPROM 52 are connected to the CPU 33. The angular velocity sensor 51 is embedded in the lens barrel 11, for example, detects the size and direction of camera shake during shooting, and transmits the detection result to the CPU 33. The EEPROM 52 stores various control programs and setting information. The CPU 33 reads these pieces of information from the EEPROM 52 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. 53, an AF detection circuit 54 that detects whether or not the focus adjustment of the imaging lens 10 is appropriate for shooting, a blur determination circuit 55, a blur correction circuit 56, and an illumination control circuit 57 that controls the operation of the illumination device 14 are connected. Yes.

  The AE / AWB detection circuit 53 detects the appropriateness of the exposure amount and the white balance based on the integrated value of the luminance signal Y of the image data YC converted by the YC conversion processing circuit 45 and the color difference signals Cr and Cb. This detection result is transmitted to the CPU 33. The AF detection circuit 54 calculates a focus evaluation value representing the sharpness of the image from the image data digitized by the A / D 40 and transmits the calculation result to the CPU 33. 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 the AE / AWB detection circuit 53 and the AF detection circuit 54.

  The blur determination circuit 55 determines whether or not the degree of camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51 is within a range where the blur correction circuit 56 can perform the blur correction. Specifically, the range of the degree of camera shake that can be effectively corrected by the shake correction circuit 56 is obtained in advance by experiments and empirical rules, and this data is stored in the EEPROM 52. Then, the blur determination circuit 55 is caused to make a determination according to the stored data.

  The blur correction circuit 56 determines that the blur correction can be performed by the blur determination circuit 55, and refers to shooting conditions such as the degree of camera shake and the shutter speed with respect to image data in which image blur due to camera shake has occurred. On the other hand, blur correction is performed so that a natural image with less noticeable image blur is obtained.

  The illumination control circuit 57 automatically emits the illumination device 14 when the subject luminance is low, the forced emission mode that causes the illumination device 14 to emit light regardless of the subject luminance, and the emission prohibition that inhibits the illumination device 14 from emitting light. The lighting device 14 is controlled to be turned on / off in various emission modes such as a mode and a red-eye reduction mode for reducing the red-eye phenomenon.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when the degree of camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51 is “small”, the illumination control circuit 57 turns on only the central LED 13 as shown in FIG. When the degree of camera shake is “medium”, the four LEDs 13 except for the four corners are turned on as shown in (B). When the degree of camera shake is “large”, all nine LEDs 13 are turned on as shown in FIG. The illumination control circuit 57 causes the illumination device 14 to display the blur state as described above when the release button 15 is half-pressed. Note that the standard of the degree of blurring for switching the display pattern is set as appropriate when the digital camera 2 is shipped.

  Next, the operation of the digital camera 2 having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when photographing a subject with the digital camera 2, the power switch is operated to turn on the power of the digital camera 2, and the mode dial 16 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 44 and then sequentially recorded in the SDRAM 43 via the image input controller 41. The image data recorded in the SDRAM 43 is read out to the YC conversion processing circuit 45, converted into the luminance signal Y and the color difference signals Cr and Cb, stored in the VRAM 46, and passed through the LCD 19 through the LCD driver 47 to the LCD 19. Is displayed. When the release button 15 is half-pressed in this state, the operation of each unit is controlled by the CPU 33 based on the detection results of the AE / AWB detection circuit 53 and the AF detection circuit 54, and photographing preparation processing is performed.

  When shooting is performed by fully pressing the release button 15 after shooting preparation processing, in the still image shooting mode, the image data recorded in the SDRAM 43 at that time is compressed by the compression / decompression processing circuit 48, and the media controller 49. Is stored in the memory card 50 via.

  On the other hand, under the moving image shooting mode, image data is stored at a constant frame rate (for example, 30 frames / second) until the release button 15 is fully pressed again. At the same time, ambient sounds are recorded via the microphone. The sound recorded by the microphone is stored in the memory card 50 in association with the image data.

  In FIG. 5, under the shooting mode, the degree of camera shake is detected by the angular velocity sensor 51, and the detection result is sequentially transmitted to the CPU 33. The shake determination circuit 55 determines whether or not the detection result of the angular velocity sensor 51, that is, the degree of camera shake, can be corrected by the shake correction circuit 56.

  When it is determined by the blur determination circuit 55 that the blur correction is impossible, the illumination control circuit 57 responds to the degree of camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51 when the release button 15 is half-pressed. The LED 13 is turned on with the displayed pattern. That is, when the degree of camera shake is “small”, only the central LED 13 is lit, and when the degree of camera shake is “medium”, the four LEDs 13 except for the four corners are lit. When the degree of camera shake is “large”, all nine LEDs 13 are turned on.

  On the other hand, when the blur determination circuit 55 determines that blur correction is possible, the blur correction circuit 56 performs blur correction on the image data. In this case, the LED 13 remains off by the illumination control circuit 57 even when the release button 15 is half-pressed.

  After the illuminating device 14 notifies the subject of the blurring state, a shooting preparation process is performed, and when the release button 15 is fully pressed, the image data is stored in the memory card 50 and a single image is shot. Ends. The series of processes continues until the mode is changed or the power is turned off.

  As described above, the digital camera 2 uses the illumination device 14 that irradiates the subject with shooting auxiliary light so that the blurring state is displayed before shooting. Even in this case, the person to be photographed can call attention to the photographer, and the photographing failure can be prevented in advance.

  Further, when the blur determination circuit 55 determines that blur correction is impossible, the LED 13 is not turned on until the release button 15 is half-pressed, so that the power consumption due to the lighting of the LED 13 can be minimized. . Furthermore, since the display pattern of the determination result by the illumination device 14 is changed according to the degree of camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51, the photographed person can give the photographer more accurate advice regarding photographing. .

  In FIG. 6 showing the second embodiment of the present invention, the digital camera 60 calculates an image blur that calculates the degree of image blur that occurs in the image represented by the image data from the degree of camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51. A calculation circuit 61 is provided. The image blur calculation circuit 61 includes, for example, data indicating the correspondence between the degree of camera shake and the degree of image blur stored in the EEPROM 52 in advance, the degree of camera shake detected by the angular velocity sensor 51, and the shutter speed in the shooting preparation process. Is used to predict and calculate the degree of image blur that occurs in the image. Alternatively, data on the degree of camera shake and the degree of image blur is stored, and the degree of image blur is calculated with reference to the data.

  The blur determination circuit 62 determines whether or not the degree of image blur calculated by the image blur calculation circuit 61 is within a range in which blur correction can be performed by the blur correction circuit 56. Specifically, in the same way as the blur determination circuit 55 of the first embodiment, the range of the degree of image blur that can be effectively corrected by the blur correction circuit 56 is obtained in advance by experiments and empirical rules. Data is stored in the EEPROM 52. Then, the blur determination circuit 62 makes a determination according to the stored data.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the illumination control circuit 63 lights up the four LEDs 13 at the four corners as shown in FIG. This is expressed as display pattern 1). On the other hand, when it is determined by the blur determination circuit 62 that the blur correction is impossible, all nine LEDs 13 are turned on as shown in (B) (hereinafter referred to as display pattern 2).

  In FIG. 8 showing the processing procedure under the photographing mode of the digital camera 60, the degree of camera shake is detected by the angular velocity sensor 51 under the photographing mode, and the detection result is sequentially transmitted to the CPU 33. After shooting preparation processing is performed by half-pressing the release button 15 and then the release button 15 is fully pressed, the image blur calculation circuit 61 calculates the degree of image blur. The blur determination circuit 62 determines whether or not the degree of image blur calculated by the image blur calculation circuit 61 is within a range in which blur correction can be performed by the blur correction circuit 56.

  When the blur determination circuit 62 determines that the blur correction is impossible, the illumination control circuit 63 turns on the LED 13 with the display pattern 2.

  On the other hand, when the blur determination circuit 62 determines that blur correction is possible, the blur correction circuit 56 performs blur correction on the image data. Then, the LED 13 is turned on with the display pattern 1 by the illumination control circuit 63.

  After the illuminating device 14 notifies the photographed person of the blurring state, the image data is stored in the memory card 50, and the photographing of one image is completed. The series of processes continues until the mode is changed or the power is turned off. Since other configurations and operations of the digital camera 60 are the same as those of the digital camera 2, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  As described above, the digital camera 60 is configured to display the blurring state after shooting with the illumination device 14 that irradiates the subject with auxiliary shooting light. The photographer can be urged to take another shot.

  In addition, the number of LED13 illustrated by the said embodiment, arrangement | sequence, a display pattern, etc. are examples, and this invention is not specifically limited. In addition, the illumination device 14 in which the LEDs 13 that emit white light are arranged is described as an example of the illumination unit, but a strobe device using a xenon tube or the like may be used. In this case, the display pattern is changed depending on the number of times of light emission and the amount of light.

  In the above embodiment, the digital cameras 2 and 60 have been described as examples of the imaging device. However, the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to other imaging devices, for example, a camera-equipped mobile phone. .

1 is a front external perspective view of a digital camera to which a first embodiment of 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. It is a figure which shows the display pattern of an illuminating device, (A) shows the case where the extent of a blur is "small", (B) is "medium", (C) shows "large", respectively. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the digital camera under imaging | photography mode. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the digital camera to which the 2nd Embodiment of this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the display pattern of an illuminating device, (A) shows the time when the grade of an image blur is in the range which can carry out blur correction, and (B) shows the time of being out of the range, respectively. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the digital camera under imaging | photography mode.

Explanation of symbols

2, 60 Digital camera 10 Imaging lens 13 LED
14 Illumination Device 15 Release Button 19 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
33 CPU
36 CCD
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 50 Memory card 51 Angular velocity sensor 55, 62 Shake determination circuit 56 Shake correction circuit 57, 63 Illumination control circuit

Claims (6)

In an imaging apparatus that converts an imaging signal obtained by imaging subject light into digital image data and stores the image data in a storage medium.
Illumination means for irradiating the subject with photographing auxiliary light;
Illumination control means for controlling the operation of the illumination means;
Camera shake detection means for quantitatively detecting the degree of camera shake during shooting;
Blur correction means for performing blur correction on the image data;
A blur determination unit that determines whether the degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detection unit is within a range in which the blur correction unit can perform the blur correction;
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the illumination control unit causes the illumination unit to display a determination result of the blur determination unit before photographing the subject.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the illumination unit includes a plurality of light emitting elements that emit white light.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the illumination control unit changes a display pattern of the determination result by the illumination unit in accordance with a degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detection unit. . Release operation means for performing shooting preparation processing including at least exposure adjustment by half pressing, and storing the image data in the storage medium by full pressing,
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the illumination control unit displays the determination result by the illumination unit only when the release operation unit is half-pressed. In an imaging apparatus that converts an imaging signal obtained by imaging subject light into digital image data and stores the image data in a storage medium.
Illumination means for irradiating the subject with photographing auxiliary light;
Illumination control means for controlling the operation of the illumination means;
Camera shake detection means for quantitatively detecting the degree of camera shake during shooting;
Blur correction means for performing blur correction on the image data;
Image blur calculating means for calculating the degree of image blur generated in the image represented by the image data from the degree of camera shake detected by the camera shake detecting means;
A blur determination unit that determines whether or not the degree of image blur calculated by the image blur calculation unit is within a range in which blur correction can be performed by the blur correction unit;
The image pickup apparatus, wherein the illumination control unit causes the illumination unit to display a determination result of the blur determination unit after photographing the subject. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the illumination unit includes a plurality of light emitting elements that emit white light.

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