JP3155747B2 - camera - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera, and more particularly, to a camera having no mechanical driving means, such as an electronic still camera, for generating a shutter sound in a pseudo manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electronic still cameras and video movies using a so-called element shutter which does not have a mechanical drive unit in a shutter mechanism have begun to be used. With this type of camera, since no shutter sound is generated when the shutter button is released, the photographer cannot confirm whether or not the release operation has been performed, and may feel uneasy whether or not the photograph was taken. turn into.

Therefore, there has been proposed a camera which outputs various kinds of camera information such as the remaining number of films and the subject distance in addition to the information relating to the release operation by voice. That is, in the "electronic still camera with a shutter sound generating mechanism" described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-18338, the shutter button is closed and covers the front surface of the taking lens when the shutter button is not released, and opens for a predetermined time when the shutter button is released. A lens cover having an opening / closing means for generating an opening / closing sound at the time of the opening operation or the closing operation is provided on the front surface of the photographing lens, so that a pseudo shutter sound is generated at the time of shutter release.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-98873 discloses an "electronic still camera photographed number alarm device" which includes a detecting means for detecting the number of photographed images recorded on a recording medium of the electronic still camera, Means for selectively generating a plurality of types of sounds in accordance with the remaining number of images that can be taken by the output of the camera, thereby providing warning information on the number of images to be taken so that shooting cannot be suddenly disabled during shooting. Selective output by voice. Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
In the "sound display device" described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-58532, a sequential signal generating means for replacing information related to an amount with a sequential signal of a number corresponding to the amount, and a sound signal generating means for generating a different sound signal for each sequential signal. Sound signal generating means for providing a sound corresponding to subject distance information at the time of AF (auto focus) shooting, for example, "pi" when the subject is located at a short distance, and "pipo" when the subject is located at a medium distance. , A "pipopa" is generated at a long distance.

[0005]

However, since the lens cover for protecting the photographing lens is kept open for a predetermined time to generate an opening / closing sound at the time of opening or closing the lens cover, a pseudo sound is generated at the time of shutter release. JP-A-1-183, in which a shutter sound is generated in
In the proposal described in Japanese Patent No. 638, since a pseudo sound is produced by the mechanical opening / closing means, the reliability is poor and the type of the pseudo sound is limited to one. Further, a detecting means for detecting the number of shots recorded on the recording medium of the electronic still camera,
Means for selectively generating a plurality of types of sounds according to the number of remaining images that can be photographed by the output from the detection means,
According to the proposal described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-98873, in which warning information of the number of shots is selectively output by voice,
No means for confirming the shutter release operation in the electronic still camera is disclosed. Furthermore, there are provided a sequential signal generating means for replacing the information relating to the quantity with a sequential signal of a number corresponding to the quantity, and a sound signal generating means for generating a different sound signal for each successive signal and giving it to the sound generating means, In the proposal described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-58532, which outputs audio corresponding to subject distance information at the time of AF shooting, only the operation at the time of AF shooting is disclosed. No means is disclosed for generating a pseudo sound that is very similar to the shutter sound of the camera at a timing related to the shutter operation.

[0006] Further, there is no disclosure about an effective arrangement of the means for generating a pseudo sound on the camera body.

The finder and the speaker need to be large enough not to impair their functions. On the other hand, the camera is desirably small in size on a portable device, and various operation members and the like must be arranged in a limited space. However, depending on the arrangement, it is difficult to see through the viewfinder.
In some cases, a function that is originally required, such that speaker sound is difficult to hear from the position of the operator, is impaired.

In addition, there has been a case where the main operation members, the display unit, and the like cannot be arranged near the center of the rear surface of the camera main body, and the operability of the camera deteriorates.

Furthermore, if the arrangement of the components is not appropriate, the size of the camera becomes large, which is not preferable as a portable device in some cases.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera that allows a photographer to recognize various operations such as a release operation and continuous shooting without impairing the functions of a viewfinder and a speaker and that has good operability.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, a camera according to claim 1 comprises: a camera body; a sound generating means adapted to generate a sound in accordance with an operation of the camera;
A sound generating opening for transmitting the sound generated by the sound generating means to a photographer, and a recording medium for recording image information captured based on an exposure operation for adjusting a subject image receiving and storing period are mounted. Recording medium mounting section for performing
A finder viewing window for observing a subject image, wherein the recording medium mounting portion is provided on a side surface of the camera body, and the sound generation opening and the finder viewing window are provided on a rear surface of the camera body and at a peripheral portion thereof. Is provided.

With this configuration, it is easy for the user to hear the voice uttered from the voice generation opening arranged on the back without impairing the operability of the camera, so that a camera that is easy to use can be provided. it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera body, a voice generating means adapted to generate a sound in accordance with an operation of the camera, and for transmitting a sound generated by the sound generating means to a photographer. An opening for sound generation, and a finder viewing window for observing a subject image, wherein the opening for sound generation and the finder viewing window are provided on the back of the camera body and on the same side. It is characterized by being.

With this configuration, it is possible to provide an easy-to-use camera that makes it easy to hear the sound produced even while looking through the viewfinder during shooting.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera, a camera body, a sound generating means for generating a sound according to the operation of the camera, and a sound generated by the sound generating means for transmitting the sound generated by the sound generating means to a photographer. And a recording medium mounting portion for mounting a recording medium for recording image information captured based on an exposure operation that adjusts a subject image receiving and accumulating period. Opening is provided near one side of the back of the camera body, and the recording medium mounting section is provided on the side of the camera body on a side opposite to the side provided with the sound generating opening. Features.

With this configuration, a speaker opening of a required size can be provided without impairing the miniaturization of the camera regardless of the mounting of a recording medium requiring a relatively large area.

A camera according to a fourth aspect of the present invention has a finder viewing window for observing a subject image, and the finder viewing window is provided on a back side of the camera body and on one side provided with the voice generating opening. It is provided near one side between the side where the recording medium mounting portion is provided.

With this configuration, it is possible to provide a camera that does not impair the finder function and that makes it easy to hear the speaker sound.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 assumes that an electronic still camera of the type that magnetically records data on a floppy disk is used. The charge in a CCD transfer path in an image pickup device such as a CCD is discharged, and the charge stored in a photodiode is read out to the transfer path. Since no element shutter is assumed, no shutter sound is generated as in a conventional mechanical shutter. Therefore, a shutter pseudo sound utterance timing adjusting means is provided in the microcomputer, and for example, the pseudo sound "Kashan" which is very similar to the conventional shutter sound is divided into three syllables "Ka", "Sha" and "N". EEPRO
When the shutter is opened, first, the first syllable "" is read and uttered by the utterance timing adjusting means in the microcomputer.

Then, the second syllable "sha" is uttered while the shutter is open, and the third syllable "n" is uttered when the shutter is closed. Therefore, when the shutter speed is fast, "Kashan", and when it is slow, "Cashan"
Is synchronized with the actual camera operation. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to a camera using an element shutter, and is also effective when applied to a camera using a physical shutter shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, subject light transmitted through a photographing lens 1 is adjusted in its light amount by a diaphragm mechanism 2 and guided to a light receiving surface of an image pickup device 3 such as a CCD, and is photoelectrically converted by the device 3 to produce a video signal. Is output as The video signal is subjected to required signal processing in the imaging process circuit 4 and the recording process circuit 5, and then applied to a recording / reproducing device 6 composed of a magnetic head, a floppy disk, a drive motor and the like to be magnetically recorded. You. On the other hand, at the time of reproduction, a signal read from the recording / reproducing device 6 is output via the reproduction process circuit 7. SSG (synchronous signal generator) 8
Is supplied to the image sensor 3 via the imager driver 9.

A microcomputer 10 which operates as a sequence controller for controlling the operation sequence of each circuit in the camera.
Has a built-in utterance timing setting means 10a, and is provided with a trigger switch, a continuous shooting mode switch, a recording switch, a delete switch, a voice selection switch, and other operation switches 16 mounted on the camera body, which will be described later. When an operation signal is input, a control signal is output to the recording process circuit 5, the recording / reproducing device 6, and the imager driver 9.

The microcomputer 10 includes an electrically rewritable EEPROM 11 for storing previously recorded voices in the form of digital data, a D / A converter 12 for converting digital data into analog data, and a bus line. , Whereby bidirectional transmission and reception of data and control signals can be performed. D / A above
The analog signal output from the converter 12 is an LPF
After the high-frequency component is removed by a (low-pass filter) 13 to produce an audio signal, the audio signal is output as audio from a speaker 15 via an audio amplifier 14. And
The microcomputer 10, the EEPROM 11, the D / A converter 12, the LPF 13, the amplifier 14, and the speaker 15 constitute a gist of the present invention.

The appearance of the camera according to the embodiment of the present invention thus configured will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, and the arrangement of the optical system of the camera will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a photographing lens 1 is disposed substantially at the center of a front surface 21 a of an electronic camera 21, and a finder window 22 and a microphone 2 are provided above the lens 1.
3. A strobe light emission window 24 is provided. On the upper surface 21b of the camera 21, a release button 25, various control switches 26a, 26
b, 26c, a control display 27, and various control switches 26d, 26e, respectively. Further, a medium insertion hole 29 through which a still video floppy disk (SVF) 28 is inserted and disposed is provided on the right side surface 21e of the camera 21.

FIG. 3 shows the camera shown in FIG. 2 turned upside down, that is, with the bottom surface 21d upward and the back surface 21c
FIG. In the figure, a finder viewing window 22a is arranged on the rear surface 21c of the camera 21 near the center below. An opening 31 for loudspeaker sound is provided on the left side (that is, on the lower left side of the rear surface 21c of the camera 21).

On the bottom surface 21d of the camera 21, a rotary switch 32 for selecting a sound by switching the sound is provided, from "SILENT" to "OPTION SET".
The function is switched. This "SILEN
“T” is a mute function, “SOUNDA”, “SOUND”
“B” and “SOUND C” are functions for selecting each pseudo sound, “OPTION SET” is a function for the camera operator to record his or her favorite sound, and “SOUND C”
"OPTION" is a function for producing a voice recorded by the "OPTION SET".

Next, the configuration of the optical system of the camera according to the present invention having such an appearance will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 4 is an arrangement diagram of an optical system of the electronic still camera. In general, in an electronic still camera, one frame is composed of two fields, so that recording and reproduction can be performed by switching between a field mode and a frame mode. When recording in the field mode, shutter control can be performed only by the element shutter. However, when recording in the frame mode, the element shutter and the mechanical shutter must be used together with the current technology. Therefore, in the electronic still camera shown in FIG. 4, an aperture mechanism 2 and a shutter mechanism 33 are provided behind the photographing lens 1, and an optical filter 34 and an image sensor 3 are further provided behind the same. The aperture mechanism 2 is controlled by an aperture control 36, and the shutter mechanism 33 is controlled by a shutter control 35. Now, when using this electronic still camera in the frame mode, the mechanical shutter is also activated, so you can hear the shutter sound. However, if you try to shoot in the field mode, the mechanical shutter is open and the shutter operates only with the element shutter. Is performed, the shutter sound cannot be heard.

FIG. 5 is an arrangement diagram of an optical system of a camera using a physical shutter. The liquid crystal diaphragm shutter of this camera can change the liquid crystal cell between a light transmitting state and a non-light transmitting state by controlling the state of the applied voltage with time, thereby obtaining an arbitrary shutter speed and, at the same time, increasing the area of voltage application. The aperture function can be obtained by changing it, and is controlled by a liquid crystal aperture shutter 37 and a liquid crystal aperture shutter control 38.
Therefore, also in this case, the operator of the camera cannot hear the shutter sound. The above is the description of the appearance of the camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention and the arrangement of its optical system. Since the appearance and the optical arrangement are the same as those of the second embodiment described below, Hereinafter, the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a timing chart of the operation of each unit in the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart thereof. In the first embodiment, in a camera without shutter sound, a machine language that is stored in advance in the EEPROM 11 (see FIG. 1) and is close to the actual shutter sound, for example, “Cashan qa sh
"a chan" is uttered in response to the release operation, i.e., for example, if the exposure is 1/125 second, a pseudo sound "Kashan" of that time width is uttered.
In the case of a so-called direct photometry shutter operation in which the amount of incident light from the shutter opening is integrated and the shutter is closed when a predetermined amount is reached, so-called direct photometry, the shutter opening time is long according to the shutter opening time. A pseudo sound, such as "Cashan", that matches the timing of the shutter operation is produced. Such a pseudo sound is stored in advance in the EEPROM 11 of FIG. 1 as a digital signal for each single syllable, which will be described later, and is read out and output from the speaker 15. In addition, it is possible to cope with both the single shooting mode and the continuous shooting mode, but FIG. 6 shows a single shooting mode for easy understanding, and FIG. 7 shows a continuous shooting mode including the continuous shooting mode. I do.

In FIG. 6, when the release button is fully depressed and the trigger signal 41 is transmitted, a pseudo sound "P (pi)" 42 for notifying the start or end of photographing is output in response to this. Next, when the shutter is opened, an active-L shutter-open signal 43 is output, so that the pseudo-sound of the first syllable of the shutter pseudo-sound “qa scha chan” composed of three syllables is synchronized with the falling edge of this signal 43. “Qa (f)” 44 is transmitted. This pseudo sound "q
a ”44, the pseudo-sound“ sha
(Shear) “45” is sent out, but this pseudo sound “sh
a "45 continues to be transmitted while the shutter open signal 43 is active. When the shutter operation ends and the shutter open signal 43 returns to the non-active H level, the dummy sound" sha "ends and this time. Is the pseudo-sound of the third syllable “ch
an (shang) "46 is transmitted for a short time.

In this manner, the pseudo sound “qsha cac” is generated at the timing related to the actual shutter operation of the camera.
Then, in the floppy disk camera, the track access signal 47 for accessing the next track becomes active L for a considerable time width, whereby the track is accessed.

When the track access signal 47 ends, a pseudo sound "P" 48 for notifying the end of the photographing is transmitted, and a series of pseudo sound production ends. Next, the above operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 10, for example, "!" Of "P!" Is used as a code for producing a voice.

In FIG. 7, when the pseudo sound "P!" 42 indicating the start of photographing is transmitted (step S1), the process proceeds to step S2 and waits until the "shutter open" signal 43 is transmitted. When the same signal 43 is transmitted, step S
Proceeding to step S3, the pseudo-sound "qa!" Of the first syllable is uttered, and the process proceeds to steps S4 and S5. In steps S4 and S5,
Until the shutter is closed, the pseudo-sound “sha” of the second syllable is continuously uttered. When the shutter is closed, the pseudo sound "chan" of the third syllable is transmitted (step S6), and the process proceeds to step S7 to wait until the track access ends,
When the track access ends, the process proceeds to step S8, where it is determined whether or not the mode is the continuous shooting mode. If the mode is the single shooting mode, the process proceeds to step S9, in which a pseudo sound "P!" For notifying the end of shooting is uttered, and the process ends.

In the continuous shooting mode, the flow advances to step S10 to determine whether or not the shutter trigger button has been continuously depressed by the photographer. If the shutter trigger button has been continuously depressed, the process returns to step S2 and the trigger button is depressed. If not, the process proceeds to step S9 and ends. The above is the description of the operation of the camera showing the first embodiment of the present invention, which emits the shutter pseudo sound transmitted at the timing related to the shutter operation.

In the first embodiment, since the shutter pseudo sound does not have a recording function, the EEPR
The OM 11 can be replaced with a mask ROM or the like.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIGS. 8 to 10 are a block diagram, a timing chart, and a flowchart of a camera showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In the first embodiment, E
Although the mechanical sound stored in the EPROM 11 (see FIG. 1) is read out and used as a pseudo shutter sound, in the second embodiment, in addition to reading out the mechanical sound, an arbitrary sound desired by the photographer is also used. For example, "taken" can be recorded and registered, and the registered dummy sound can be generated at a timing related to the shutter operation. In the second embodiment, the same components or routines as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that a registered onomatopoeic sound is generated. Only the points will be described below.

Note that the microphone that collects the pseudo sound desired by the photographer can also be used as the microphone for recording sound on the recording medium of the SV system, and the same applies to the speaker. Also, an audio signal can be input from an external input terminal other than the microphone, or a voice already recorded on a recording medium of the SV system can be input and used as a registered onomatopoeic sound.

In FIG. 8, the audio signal collected by the microphone 23 is transmitted to the A / D converter 17 via the LPF 13a.
And converted into digital data. And
The data is stored as a registered onomatopoeia in the EEPROM 11 via the bus line. The registered onomatopoeia recorded by the arbitrary sound recording function having such a configuration naturally depends on the photographer's preference, and thus it is considered that the length is not constant and often long. That is, as shown in FIG. 6 in the first embodiment, it is difficult to end the utterance of the shutter opening signal 43 having a random time width during the L-active time, and therefore, from the time t1 in FIG. The registered onomatopoeia "SOUND 1" 49 is started to be uttered. Therefore, the end point of the registered onomatopoeia naturally occurs in the next shooting sequence. In particular, it is assumed that the registered onomatopoeia can be uttered only two or three times before the end of the continuous shooting, such as when performing continuous shooting, for example, performing five continuous shots per second. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the number of shots is notified to the photographer by the number of times of registered onomatopoeia, and the difference between the number of shots and the number of times of registered onomatopoeia is stored in a variable parameter M described later. At the end of the continuous shooting, the number of unuttered voices stored in the variable parameter M is read out, and registered onomatopoeia which has not been voiced yet is repeatedly and uttered.

Such an operation will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 10, when this flow starts, the variable parameter M for storing the difference between the number of shots and the number of utterances of the registered onomatopoeia already uttered is reset in step S11, and the process proceeds to step S12. This subroutine "voice setting" of step S12 is described later with reference to FIG.
As will be described in detail in FIG. 3, modulation is applied to the registered onomatopoeia in relation to the state of photographing. Then, the process proceeds to step S1, in which a pseudo sound "P" indicating the start of photographing is uttered. Then, the process proceeds to step S13.

In step S13, after adding 1 to the variable parameter M, the process proceeds to step S14 to determine whether or not the registered onomatopoeia is "producing". If it is "producing", the process proceeds to step S17. If it is not "producing", the process proceeds to step S15, where 1 is subtracted from the content of the variable parameter M, and the registered onomatopoeic / SOUND is uttered (step S1).
6) Then go to step S17. In this case, since the first shooting is started after clearing the variable parameter M in step S11, the jump from step S14 to step S17 is naturally not performed.

In other words, the operations of steps S13 to S16 will be described in other words. If the registered onomatopoeic sound "SOUND" is being produced (see step S14) due to the end of the previous shooting, the registered onomatopoeia will be registered even if the current shooting is completed. Instead of uttering “SOUND”, 1 is added to the contents of the variable parameter M (see step S13). On the other hand, if the registered onomatopoeic sound “SOUND” has already been uttered (see step S14) due to the end of the previous shooting, 1 is added to the variable parameter M (see step S13) and 1 is reduced (see step S15). That is, without correcting the memory contents of the variable parameter M, the registered onomatopoeic / SOUND / is uttered as a display for the end of the current shooting (see step S16).

In step S17, the current photographing is completed, and the process stands by until the track access for performing the next photographing is completed. Then, the process proceeds to step S8 to determine whether or not the mode is the "continuous shooting mode". If the mode is not the continuous shooting mode, that is, if the mode is the single shooting mode, the process ends. In this step S9, it is determined whether or not the photographer has continuously turned on or turned off the trigger button. If the trigger button has been turned off, the process proceeds to steps S22 and S23, where the contents of the variable parameter M are examined. The end immediately follows. If M is not 0, there will be M unregistered onomatopoeia utterances. On the other hand, if the trigger button continues to be turned on in step S9, it is considered that shooting is still being performed in the continuous shooting mode, so the process proceeds to steps S18 and S19, and firstly, it is determined whether or not the registered onomatopoeia during the previous shooting is being uttered. Furthermore, whether M = 0 or not,
Is determined. If “Y”, step S2
And the above operation is repeatedly executed. If "N", the process proceeds to steps S20 and S21, where 1 is subtracted from the content of the variable parameter M, and the registered onomatopoeic / SOUND is uttered once and the process proceeds to step S2. To return. The above is the description of the operation of the second embodiment.

In this example, the utterance timing of the registered onomatopoeia is set at the end of the operation, but it is of course possible to set the start of the shutter operation, an arbitrary time during the exposure, or immediately after the generation of the trigger signal.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the SVF standard, there is a format in which audio can be recorded instead of video on a track where a video signal is to be recorded. Alternatively, an electronic still camera using a solid-state memory card having a format similar to this has been proposed. In these cameras, a mechanical sound registered in advance as in the first and second embodiments or a photographer In addition to uttering the desired registered onomatopoeia, the audio output from the memory card on the camera side, that is, the video / audio recording / playback medium built in the camera itself, is recorded in a memory means such as an EEPROM and read out from the memory means. Can be uttered as a pseudo sound. Such a system will be described below as a third embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. In the third embodiment, the same reference numerals are given to the same components as those in the first and second embodiments, and description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the structure of a camera according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, an audio signal read from a recording / reproducing device 6 is supplied to an A / D converter 17 via a reproducing process circuit 7 and an LPF 13a. The converter 17 converts the audio signal into digital data and stores it in the EEPROM 11 through a bus line. Thus, in the third embodiment, the microphone 23 can be omitted.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a modification of the third embodiment. In this example, a solid-state memory card is used as a recording medium, and the analog audio signals extracted from the recording / reproducing device 6 and the reproducing process circuit 7 are digital data in the solid-state memory card 18. As shown in the figure, if the digital data is directly accessed in address and stored in the EEPROM 11 through the bus line, the LPF 13a and the A / D converter 17 required in FIG.

According to the third embodiment shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, the number of constituent members can be reduced, so that the structure can be simplified and the cost can be reduced. Since audio output from an external medium for recording and reproducing video / audio used in the PC can also be used as a pseudo sound, it is possible to diversify the pseudo sound.

In each of the above-described embodiments, an example has been described in which the shutter pseudo sound is produced at a timing related to the shutter operation. You can also change the pitch of the sound.

FIG. 1 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a subroutine "voice setting" of step S12 in FIG. 10 showing the flow of the second embodiment. Accordingly, an example will be described in which the registered onomatopoeic “captured” is called “captured, captured” in accordance with the continuous shooting speed in the same manner as in the second embodiment. By the way, in the fourth embodiment, the dummy sound is stored in the EEPROM1.
Instead of directly reading the data from the memory 1, the memory data of the EEPROM is once stored in the RAM of the microcomputer 10 and
Is read from. (Also in the first to third embodiments, it is natural in design to adopt such a method, but this is not essential.) In FIG. 13, when the subroutine "voice setting" starts, step S31 is started.
To clear the area of the RAM area of the microcomputer 10 which is allocated for the memory of the pseudo sound, and
Proceed to. In step S32, after resetting a parameter P to be described later, the process proceeds to step S33, and the "silence mode" is set.
It is determined whether or not the operation is in the mute mode, and the process immediately returns. If the mute mode is not set, the process proceeds to step S34. In this step S34, the voice selection key is checked and read, and the corresponding ROM data is read from the EEPROM 11 and stored in the RAM area of the microcomputer 10 (step S35). Then, the process proceeds to step S36 to determine whether the mode is the "continuous shooting mode". If the mode is not the "continuous shooting mode", that is, if the mode is the single shooting mode, the process returns. If the mode is the continuous shooting mode, the process proceeds to step S37 to set the parameter P and return. I do.
The "P setting" routine will be described in detail below.

Returning to FIG. 8 showing the block configuration of the second embodiment, the pseudo sound desired by the photographer, for example, "captured" is A / D converted by the A / D converter 17 into digital data. When the modulation sampling rate is now 20K
Hz. When reading out and uttering the registered onomatopoeia modulated into a digital value at this sampling rate and stored in the EEPROM 11, the demodulation sampling rate demodulated by the D / A converter 12 and converted into analog data is changed according to the parameter P. That is, as shown in Table 1, when shooting in the single shooting mode, the parameter P is set to 0, that is, the demodulation sampling rate of the D / A converter 12 is set to 20 KHz, which is the same as the modulation sampling rate. The registered onomatopoeia “captured, captured” that is uttered at the end of the shutter operation is uttered with the same tone as that at the time of registration.

[0052] During continuous shooting, as shown in Table 1, the continuous shooting speed is low L.
, The parameter P is set to 1;
If so, set each to 3. Since the demodulation sampling rate of the D / A converter 12 is sequentially increased to 24 KHz, 28 KHz, and 32 KHz according to the value of the parameter P, the shutter pseudo sound “captured, captured” output from the speaker 15 is continuously shot. The higher the speed, the higher the tone and the faster the utterance. Therefore, this 4th
According to the embodiment, the continuous shooting speed can be known from the pitch of the shutter end pseudo sound and the utterance tempo thereof. Since the shutter end pseudo sound is uttered earlier as the continuous shooting speed becomes higher, the shutter end pseudo sound can be uttered within a short time.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the end of the shutter operation can be recognized by the user by the pseudo sound of the timing related to the operation, and the high and low of the continuous shooting speed can be obtained. Also, information related to other shooting conditions can be transmitted by the modulation given to the pseudo sound.

In the above description, only an electronic imaging device such as an electronic still camera has been exemplified as a camera having no mechanical shutter mechanism. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can be applied to a silver halide film camera or the like using a physical shutter, and if necessary, to a movie type video camera. Also, although not particularly mentioned so far, since sound is generated by electrical means, it goes without saying that not only erasing but also volume control is possible.

[0055]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a camera that allows a photographer to recognize various operations such as a release operation and continuous shooting, a function as a viewfinder and a speaker is ensured and operability is ensured. A remarkable effect that a good camera can be provided is exhibited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a camera having the configuration shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a camera having the configuration shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an arrangement diagram of an optical system of an electronic still camera using an element shutter,

FIG. 5 is an arrangement diagram of an optical system of a camera using a physical shutter,

FIG. 6 is a timing chart and a flowchart of the operation of each part of the camera shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a timing chart and a flowchart of the operation of each part of the camera shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera according to a second embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a timing chart of the operation of each part of the camera shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is an operation flowchart of the camera shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera according to a third embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a modification of the third embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a subroutine “voice setting” in FIG. 10;

[Explanation of symbols]

 10a: Voice timing adjustment means 15: Speaker (voice means) 21: Electronic camera 21c: Camera back face 22a: Viewfinder viewing window 31: Speaker voice generation aperture

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI // H04N 101: 00 (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/225 G03B 17/18

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A camera body, a sound generating means adapted to generate a sound in accordance with an operation of the camera, and a sound generating opening for transmitting a sound generated by the sound generating means to a photographer. A recording medium mounting section for mounting a recording medium for recording image information captured based on an exposure operation that adjusts a subject image receiving / accumulating period; and a finder viewing window for observing a subject image. The recording medium mounting portion is provided on a side surface of the camera body, and the sound generation opening and a finder viewing window are provided on the rear surface of the camera body and at a peripheral portion thereof. camera. 2. A camera body, a sound generating means adapted to generate a sound in accordance with an operation of the camera, and a sound generating opening for transmitting a sound generated by the sound generating means to a photographer. A finder viewing window for observing a subject image, wherein the sound-generating opening and the finder viewing window are provided on the back of the camera body and on the same side. . 3. A camera body, a sound generating means adapted to generate a sound in accordance with an operation of the camera, and a sound generating opening for transmitting a sound generated by the sound generating means to a photographer. A recording medium mounting portion for mounting a recording medium for recording image information captured based on an exposure operation as an adjustment of a subject image receiving and accumulating period, wherein the audio generation opening is the camera body A camera provided near one side of a back surface, wherein the recording medium mounting portion is provided on a side surface of the camera body on a side opposite to a side provided with the sound generation opening. 4. A finder viewing window for observing a subject image, wherein the finder viewing window is provided on one side of the rear surface of the camera body and provided with the sound generation opening and the recording medium mounting portion. The camera according to claim 3, wherein the camera is provided near one side between the camera and the set side.