JP2008193594A - Imaging apparatus and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve efficiency of photographing work by reducing labor and time required for confirming a photographed image to re-adjust focusing or the occurrence of a failure. <P>SOLUTION: A control method of an imaging apparatus includes an imaging means for taking a subject image formed by a lens prior to photographing and capturing the image and a control means for controlling to display the image on a display means, wherein a degree of sharpness processing for image sharpening to be applied to the image is controlled to be modified in accordance with the display means that is an output destination of the image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus suitable for performing composition confirmation and focus adjustment while confirming a live view image, and a control method therefor.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a photographing apparatus (digital camera) that can perform composition confirmation and focus adjustment while confirming a live view image in a photo studio or the like. In this type of photographing device, an optical image that has passed through the finder is imaged on an image sensor (CCD) and photoelectrically converted to display an image captured on the monitor of the photographing device, or a live view image can be displayed via a video output terminal. There are things that can be output to a TV monitor and checked. Various techniques have been proposed as prior art in this type of technical field (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2005-295476 A

  In live view shooting in which shooting is performed while viewing a live view image as disclosed in the above prior art (Patent Document 1), an image acquired by forming an optical image that has passed through the viewfinder of the shooting apparatus on an image sensor. The focus was confirmed by monitoring.

  However, there are the following problems with respect to live view image generation when performing focus confirmation. That is, in live view shooting, there is generation of a live view image suitable for checking a focus mountain on a camera monitor when checking focus. On the other hand, there is a generation of a live view image suitable for focus confirmation when performing live view shooting by connecting to a TV monitor (or a personal computer via a cable) via a camera and a video output terminal. Since they are different, it is difficult to provide optimum operability in either operation.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus and a control method therefor that can reduce the time and trouble of confirming a photographed image and readjusting the focus, and improve the efficiency of photographing work. There is to do.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the technical feature of the present invention is that an imaging unit that captures an image of a subject formed by a lens and acquires the image, and a control that controls to display the image on the display unit A method of controlling an image pickup apparatus including: means for controlling to change a degree of sharpness processing for image sharpening applied to an image according to a display means that is an output destination of the image.

  According to the present invention, since it is possible to perform composition and focusing while directly confirming an image captured by the imaging apparatus, composition confirmation and strict focusing can be performed at the time of shooting preparation. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the trouble and trouble of confirming the captured image and readjusting the focus, thereby improving the efficiency of the photographing operation.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a studio photographing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the studio photographing system includes a digital single lens reflex camera (hereinafter referred to as a digital camera) 101, a strobe device 102, a personal computer (PC) 103 as an information processing device, a monitor device 104, and a printer 105. The digital camera 101 and the flash device 102 are connected by a known sync cord 106. The digital camera 101 and the PC 103 are connected by a known USB (Universal Serial Bus) code 107 so that an image can be received. The PC 103 and the printer 105 are connected by a known USB code 108.

  The digital camera 101 is installed on the upper part of the photographing stand (tripod) 109 and has the configuration shown in FIG. The strobe device 102 illuminates the subject. The PC 103 has a function of capturing an image photographed by the digital camera 101, a function of remotely operating the photographing stand 109, a function of controlling the printer 105, and includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, a hard disk (not shown), and the like. The monitor device 104 is connected to the PC 103, and displays various screens including a full screen display screen (FIG. 5) and an enlarged display screen (FIG. 6). The printer 105 prints a captured image based on image data captured by the digital camera 101 transmitted from the PC 103.

  This embodiment has the following features. When the photographer confirms the Live View image before shooting and performs shooting, the degree of sharpness processing (hereinafter referred to as “sharpness”) applied to the Live View image generated by the digital camera 101 depends on the display output destination of the Live View image. It is possible to change. The sharpness processing here is processing for image sharpening performed on an image, and processing is performed on the image by changing frequency characteristics and gains of a plurality of bandpass filters prepared.

  The PC 103 can specify the degree of sharpness applied to the live view image to the digital camera 101. Further, the PC 103 can designate the degree of sharpness applied to the live view image to the digital camera 101 according to the resolution of the display output destination of the live view image. The digital camera 101 sharpens the live view image according to the display output destination of the live view image. The display output destination of the live view image is selected from the liquid crystal display unit of the digital camera 101, the monitor device 104 of the PC 103, a television monitor, or the like.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the digital camera 101.

  In FIG. 2, the photographing lenses 1 and 3 are illustrated with two lenses for convenience of explanation, but actually, the photographing lenses 1 and 3 are configured by a larger number of lenses. The diaphragm 2 adjusts the amount of light that has passed through the photographing lenses 1 and 3. The main mirror 4 is set in an inclined state or a retracted state with respect to the photographing optical path according to the observation state of the subject image by the finder system. The sub mirror 5 reflects the light beam that has passed through the main mirror 4 toward the lens system 11 and the line sensor 12 for focus detection located below the camera housing.

  The image sensor 7 is configured as a CCD image sensor or a MOS image sensor. The liquid crystal display unit 8 is built in the finder, and displays a focus plate, a distance measurement frame mark, and the like arranged on the planned imaging plane of the photographing lenses 1 and 3. The pentaprism 9 is a finder optical path changing prism. The imaging lens 10 is an eyepiece lens, through which a photographer can observe a subject. The lens system 11 is a focus detection lens. The line sensor 12 performs focus detection. The focus adjustment circuit 13 is disposed in the photographing lenses 1 and 3 and performs focus adjustment. The A / D conversion circuit 28 performs A / D conversion on the photometry circuit disposed in the upper part of the finder optical path system and its output. The diaphragm drive circuit 14 is disposed in the photographing lenses 1 and 3 and drives the diaphragm 2. The mirror drive circuit 15 drives the main mirror 4. The line sensor drive circuit 16 drives the line sensor 12. The shutter drive circuit 17 drives the shutter 6. The image sensor driving circuit 18 drives the image sensor 7. The A / D conversion circuit 19 converts the analog shooting signal output from the image sensor 7 into a digital shooting signal. The signal processing circuit 20 performs signal processing on the digital photographing signal.

  The RAM 21 temporarily stores digital image signals and the like. The ROM 22 stores a control program for controlling the digital camera. The compact flash (registered trademark) (CF) 23 is a recording medium for finally recording a digital image signal. The CPU 24 is a central processing unit that controls each part of the digital camera. Further, the CPU 24 executes processing shown in a flowchart of FIG. 7 described later based on the control program. A liquid crystal display (LCD) 25 displays a captured image corresponding to the captured digital image signal.

  The switch input unit 26 is an input that is linked to the operation of various buttons such as a release switch (hereinafter referred to as a release SW) operated by a shutter button 37 (FIG. 3), various function buttons 31 to 33, dials 34 and 38, and a power switch 35. I do. The switch input unit 26 sends a corresponding signal to the CPU 24 when the photographer operates the corresponding button.

  The release SW is composed of a switch having at least two or more contacts. For example, the release SW has a structure in which the state is switched in two stages according to the amount of pressing. When the release SW is pressed halfway, the first contact (hereinafter SW1) is selected, and when the release SW is pressed to the end, the second contact (hereinafter SW2) is selected. When SW1 is selected, shooting preparation operations such as AF (autofocus) and AE (automatic exposure) are performed, and when SW2 is selected, shooting operations and digital image signal creation operations and recording operations are performed.

  The I / O port 27 enables connection between the digital camera 101 and the PC 103 via the USB code 107. As a result, the digital camera 101 can be controlled by the PC 103.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an appearance of the back side of the digital camera 101.

  In FIG. 3, function buttons 31 to 33 for function selection, a selection main dial 34, a shutter button 37, and the like are disposed on the upper surface of the housing of the digital camera 101. A selection sub-dial 38 and a liquid crystal display unit 40 for confirming a captured image and for displaying a function menu (corresponding to the liquid crystal display unit 25 in FIG. 2) are disposed on the rear surface of the housing. Further, a video output terminal 41 for outputting a display image of the liquid crystal display unit 40 is disposed on the side surface of the housing. In addition, an imaging lens, an image output terminal, and the like are disposed on the front surface (not shown) of the housing.

  Branching to each mode and execution of functions in accordance with the operation of various buttons such as the release SW operated by the shutter button 37, the various function buttons 31 to 33, the dials 34 and 38, and the power switch 35 by the photographer are as follows. To be done. That is, a state signal sent from the switch input unit 26 to the CPU 24 is discriminated, and a mode determination module (configured by a program in this embodiment) branches to a mode processing circuit or program corresponding to the state signal.

  Next, the shooting operation of the studio shooting system according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described.

  In the digital camera 101, as in the case of the film camera, in addition to the conventional focus confirmation in which the image formed on the focus plate is confirmed with the viewfinder, the image formed on the image sensor 7 is confirmed in real time on the liquid crystal display unit 40. There are shooting methods for checking composition and focusing. Hereinafter, this shooting method is referred to as live view shooting.

  When live view shooting is performed with the digital camera 101, an image received by the image sensor 7 of the digital camera 101 is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 40 in real time. As a result, the photographer can adjust the angle by moving the digital camera 101 based on the situation in which the composition, color, etc. of the entire image are viewed.

  Further, the image displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 40 of the digital camera 101 can be enlarged, and the position to be enlarged can be moved. Focusing in live view shooting is performed by auto-focusing or manual focusing while magnifying and displaying a portion to be focused on the liquid crystal display unit 40 and confirming a display image. In this case, with respect to an image displayed so that the peak of the focus is easily understood on the liquid crystal display unit 40 having a small display area, the image is sharpened so that it can be easily focused.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the digital camera 101 can be connected to a television monitor (television receiver) 110 by a code 111 via a video output terminal 41. If the television monitor 110 is connected to the digital camera 101, an image can be received. Thus, the photographer can take a picture while confirming the enlarged image by enlarging the image displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 40 of the digital camera 101 on the television monitor 110.

  On the other hand, live view shooting can be performed not only by the digital camera 101 alone, but also by remote operation from the PC 103 connected to the digital camera 101 by the USB code 107. In this case, the digital camera 101 sequentially transmits an image formed on the image sensor 7 to the PC 103, and the PC 103 displays the image on the monitor device 104 in real time. Thus, even when the digital camera 101 is remotely operated, composition confirmation and focusing can be performed while confirming an image (live view image) formed on the image sensor 7 on the monitor device 104.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a full screen display screen of live view shooting using the PC 103. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an enlarged display screen for live view shooting using the PC 103.

  5 and 6, a full screen display screen 45 and an enlarged display screen 60 are examples of user interface screens displayed by an application program (control program) used for live view shooting on the PC 103. In the present embodiment, a case where two types of user interface screens, a full screen display screen 45 and an enlarged display screen 60 are displayed on the monitor device 104 of the PC 103 will be described as an example.

  First, the full screen display screen 45 will be described. The full screen display screen 45 is provided with a full image display section 55 for displaying the entire image of the captured image in accordance with the screen. The PC 103 updates the image acquired from the digital camera 101 as needed, thereby displaying the captured image live on the monitor device 104. As a result, the photographer can check the composition and color of the entire image. Further, by installing an electric head (not shown) between the digital camera 101 and the photographing stand 109, the angle can be adjusted by remote control.

  In addition, an enlargement frame 57 is provided in the full image display portion 55 of the full screen display screen 45. An enlarged frame 57 can indicate an area to be enlarged and displayed in the image. Further, the position and size of the enlargement frame 57 can be changed by moving the enlargement frame 57 by a mouse drag operation or the like. The enlargement frame 57 also serves as a position for autofocusing the subject with the digital camera 101.

  The full-screen display screen 45 is provided with an autofocus button 41 for instructing focus control by remote operation and manual focus buttons 50 to 53 for instructing focus by manual operation. The manual focus button 50 is a coarse drive button for instructing rough drive in the near direction. The manual focus button 51 is a fine drive button for instructing fine drive in the near direction. The manual focus button 52 is a fine drive button for instructing fine drive in the far direction. The manual focus button 53 is a coarse drive button that instructs coarse drive in the far direction.

  When the autofocus button 41 is pressed, focus adjustment is automatically performed so that the focus is in the vicinity of the center of the enlargement frame 57. The manual focus buttons 50, 51, 52, and 53 are provided for the purpose of performing fine adjustment after focus adjustment with the autofocus button 41. By pressing each button, the focus fine adjustment can be performed by each specified amount. .

  The full screen display screen 45 is provided with an enlarged screen switching button 56 for switching the full screen display screen 45 to the enlarged display screen 60. When the enlargement screen switching button 56 is pressed, the state is switched so that the enlargement image is requested from the PC 103 to the digital camera 101 in order to switch the display from the full screen display screen 45 to the enlargement display screen 60.

  Next, the enlarged display screen 60 will be described. The enlarged display screen 60 is provided with an enlarged image display unit 65 that displays the image of the enlarged frame 57 of the full-screen display screen 45 as a live view image at a high resolution that is the same size as the pixels of the image sensor 7 (pixel same size). It has been. The PC 103 displays the enlarged image live on the monitor device 104 by drawing and updating the image acquired from the digital camera 101 as needed. Note that a function of switching the display magnification of the image displayed on the enlarged image display unit 65 may be provided.

  Buttons 61, 62, 63, and 64 for instructing movement of the image enlargement position are provided around the enlarged image display unit 65. By pressing the buttons 61 to 64, the enlarged positions can be moved upward, left, right, and downward, respectively. Further, like the full screen display screen 45, the enlarged display screen 60 is provided with an autofocus button 41 and manual focus buttons 50, 51, 52 and 53 for focus control.

  The enlarged display screen 60 is provided with a full screen switching button 66 for switching the enlarged display screen 60 to the full screen display screen 45. When the full screen switching button 66 is pressed, the state is switched so that the PC 103 requests the digital camera 101 for all images in order to switch the display from the enlarged display screen 60 to the full screen display screen 45.

  The enlarged display screen 60 is a screen for mainly performing focus confirmation. By displaying the image formed on the imaging device 7 as it is as an enlarged image on the enlarged display screen 60 on the high-resolution monitor device 104 of the PC 103, it is possible to confirm and correct a slight focus shift. However, normally, as the live view image generated by the digital camera 101, as described above, an image that is displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 40 and is sharpened so that the peak of focus can be easily understood is generated.

  When an image with such sharpness is displayed on the monitor device 104 at the same pixel magnification, a slight focus shift is clearly displayed with sharpness. For this reason, it is difficult to find a just position where the focus is perfectly achieved, and the focus is often roughly adjusted. In view of this, an enlargement screen that is captured by the digital camera 101 for live view shooting and transmitted to the PC 103 switches the image processing to be executed by the digital camera 101 so that sharpness is not applied or weakened.

  The control program for controlling the display of the enlarged display screen 60 has a function of recognizing the resolution of the monitor device 104 connected to the PC 103 and switching the image processing for the degree of sharpness generated on the digital camera side according to the resolution. Have.

  For example, when the PC 103 is a notebook personal computer, the graphics standard of the monitor device 104 is generally about XGA (Extended Graphics Array) (resolution: 1024 × 768 dots). For this reason, when an image is displayed on the monitor device 104 at the same size as the pixels of the image sensor, the image is displayed on the entire screen, and other portions displaying various buttons on the screen cannot be used at the same time. Conceivable. In such an environment, it may be easier to focus on the digital camera if an image obtained by slightly sharpening the reduced image is generated on the digital camera side, rather than an image with the same pixel size.

  On the other hand, in an environment with a sufficiently high resolution screen, such as a large screen monitor or multi-display, it is better to display the image formed on the image sensor 7 as it is at the same pixel magnification without applying sharpness to the image. It may be easy to confirm this. As described above, the control program performs control for switching image processing to be performed on an image generated by live view shooting with respect to the digital camera 101 in accordance with the environment of the PC 103.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing live view image generation processing of the digital camera 101.

  In FIG. 7, the CPU 24 of the digital camera 101 determines which output destination (the liquid crystal display unit 40 of the digital camera 101 and the monitor device 104 of the PC 103) displays and outputs the live view image generated by the live view shooting ( Step S1). When the output destination of the live view image is the liquid crystal display unit 40 of the digital camera 101, the CPU 24 causes the signal processing unit 20 to generate an image with sharpness that allows the liquid crystal display unit 40 to easily check a focus peak ( Step S2). Thereafter, the CPU 24 displays the generated image on the liquid crystal display unit 40 (step S3).

  On the other hand, when the output destination of the live view image is the monitor device 104 of the PC 103, the CPU 24 causes the signal processing unit 20 to generate an image with the sharpness required by the PC 103 (step S4). In this case, the degree of sharpness applied to the generated image may be a designated value designated from the PC 103 or a fixed value set in advance. Thereafter, the CPU 24 transfers the generated image to the PC 103 via the I / O port 27 (step S5).

  The degree of sharpness applied to the image generated by the above-described live view shooting may be automatically switched on the digital camera side according to the monitor device that is the image output target. For example, when outputting an image to an NTSC television monitor (television receiver) as described with reference to FIG. 4, the TV monitor can display a large screen, but the resolution is low, so it is better to increase the sharpness. The mountain is easy to grab.

  On the other hand, when the monitor device connected to the output terminal of the digital camera 101 is a high-vision monitor device such as HDMI, the resolution is high. Therefore, the image processing may be switched automatically or in accordance with a predetermined setting on the digital camera side, such as weakening sharpness or not sharpening so that subtle focusing can be confirmed. In this way, appropriate sharpness may be automatically applied according to the output terminal of the digital camera.

  Further, in the PC 103, the degree of sharpness applied to the live view image is designated to the digital camera 101 in accordance with the resolution of the display output destination of the live view image (the liquid crystal display unit 40 of the digital camera 1, the monitor device 104 of the PC 103, etc.). May be.

  In addition to the method of determining the resolution of the output destination according to the output terminal of the camera, a method of acquiring and determining information on the resolution from the display monitor unit in advance may be used.

  When the photographer completes preparation for shooting and either fully presses the shutter button 37 of the digital camera 101 or presses a remote release button (not shown) by the PC 103, the digital camera 101 enters a release operation. In this case, since focus adjustment has already been performed, automatic focus adjustment is not performed when the shutter button 37 or the remote release button is pressed.

  An image captured by the digital camera 101 is generated as a file and stored in a recording medium of the digital camera 101, or transmitted to the PC 103 and stored in a storage device such as a hard disk. Further, the photographed image is printed by the printer 105 as necessary. This completes shooting and shooting-related processing.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to compose and focus while directly confirming the image formed on the image sensor 7 of the digital camera. Confirmation and exact focusing can be performed. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the trouble and trouble of confirming the captured image and readjusting the focus, thereby improving the efficiency of the photographing operation.

[Other embodiments]
In the above embodiment, the live view shooting in the studio shooting system is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to live view shooting other than the studio shooting system.

  The object of the present invention is achieved by executing the following processing. That is, a storage medium that records a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus is stored in the storage medium. This is the process of reading the code.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the program code and the storage medium storing the program code constitute the present invention.

  Moreover, the following can be used as a storage medium for supplying the program code. For example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD + RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM or the like. Alternatively, the program code may be downloaded via a network.

  Further, the present invention includes a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by executing the program code read by the computer. In addition, an OS (operating system) running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing based on an instruction of the program code, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. Is also included.

  Furthermore, the present invention includes a case where the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized by the following processing. That is, the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. Thereafter, based on the instruction of the program code, the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the studio imaging | photography system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of a digital camera. It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the back side of a digital camera. It is a figure which shows the example which connects a digital camera and a television monitor, and performs live view imaging | photography. It is a figure which shows the full-screen display screen of the live view imaging using PC. It is a figure which shows the enlarged display screen of the live view imaging | photography using PC. It is a flowchart which shows the live view image generation process of a digital camera.

Explanation of symbols

20 Signal processing circuit (image processing means)
24 CPU (image processing means)
40 Liquid crystal display (display means)
101 Digital camera (imaging device)
103 PC (information processing device, designation means)
104 Monitor device (display means)

Claims (7)

An imaging apparatus capable of displaying a captured image on a display means before imaging,
Imaging means for capturing an image of a subject image formed by a lens and acquiring the image;
Control means for controlling to display the image on the display means,
The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls to display an image by changing a sharpness process applied to the image in accordance with the display means before photographing.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit changes the degree of sharpness processing corresponding to each resolution of the display unit.   The display means is a display means built in the imaging apparatus, a display means of an information processing apparatus connected to the imaging apparatus so as to be able to receive an image, and connected to be able to receive an image to the imaging apparatus. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, comprising any one of a television receiver.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image processing unit that performs sharpness processing on the image according to a display unit that is an output destination of the image.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the image processing unit performs sharpness processing of a degree specified by the information processing apparatus on the image.   The image processing unit of the imaging apparatus performs a first degree of sharpness processing on the image when the output destination of the image is a display unit built in the imaging apparatus, and the output destination of the image is the display of the information processing apparatus. 6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein in the case of means, sharpness processing of a degree specified by the information processing apparatus smaller than the first degree is performed on the image. An imaging apparatus control method comprising: an imaging unit that captures an image of a subject image formed by a lens to obtain an image before shooting; and a control unit that controls to display the image on a display unit.
A control method comprising: controlling a degree of sharpness processing for image sharpening applied to an image according to display means that is an output destination of the image.

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