JP3280640B2 - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic camera, and more particularly , to an improvement in operability and portability, as well as in shooting expression.
The present invention relates to an electronic camera capable of saving storage media capacity .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image pickup signal processing apparatus in which a camera and a signal processing section are separated is disclosed in, for example,
It is a combination of an endoscope television camera and a signal processing device, as in the imaging device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2 and does not achieve both operability and portability like an electronic camera. Was. It is also exemplified by analog VTRs
Resolution for subjects that do not require color reproduction
In order to improve the power, record only the luminance signal and
In some cases, the recording frequency band was extended only when
Unless processing is performed, it cannot be determined, and the capacity of the recording medium is reduced.
Did not connect.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera which does not impair operability and portability even if the imaging unit substrate and the signal processing substrate are separated from each other. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic camera capable of improving and saving the storage capacity of a recording medium.

[0004]

A first electronic camera according to the present invention comprises: a power supply unit disposed close to an end of a camera body; an image display unit disposed on a rear side of the camera body; A switch substrate disposed adjacent to the image display unit, a main substrate including at least a digital process circuit disposed substantially parallel to a camera rear portion or a camera front portion facing the camera rear portion, and a photographing lens portion; , Image sensor and S /
The same clock generation source having an H circuit and an A / D conversion circuit
Immediately after A / D conversion by supplying a drive clock from
An imaging unit substrate for outputting an image signal;
Separates the video signal into a luminance signal and a chrominance signal,
Means for compressing the compressed luminance signal,
Recorded as black and white image data, or
Data indicating whether to record as color image data.
Recording means for recording on a plate-shaped recording medium;
The recording medium can be placed in parallel with the main board.
And features. Also, a second electronic camera according to the present invention
Is a photographing lens unit in the first electronic camera.
Is located close to one end of the camera body,
A strobe light emitting part is provided on the same end as the lens part
It is characterized by the following.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on the illustrated embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a camera system of an electronic camera according to an embodiment of the present invention. The photographing light is a photographing lens unit 1 forming a photographing optical system 3.
CCD 4 serving as an image sensor through a, 1b and aperture 2
It forms an image on the top and is output as an imaging electric signal. The output is sampled and held by the S / H circuit 5,
It is output by the / D conversion circuit 6 as a digitized image signal.

The above CCD 4, S / H circuit 5, A /
A D conversion circuit 6, a CCD drive circuit 7 for driving the CCD 4 or the like, and an EEPROM serving as TV system information holding means.
Reference numeral 8 denotes an imaging unit substrate 9 that is a first circuit unit,
The imaging unit substrate 9 has a structure that can be attached to and detached from the camera.

The CCD drive circuit 7 outputs vertical and horizontal synchronizing pulses φV and φH and a reset signal φR to the CCD 4, and outputs main clock pulses MCK-1 and MCK-1 to the S / H circuit 5 and the A / D conversion circuit 6, respectively. MCK-2 is output and each is driven. The CCD drive circuit 7 generates the original oscillation clock pulse MCK0 of the original oscillation circuit 11.
Is a synchronizing signal generation circuit that outputs a main clock pulse MCK and vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals HD and VD based on the
It is driven by the SG circuit 10. Also, E
The EPROM 8 stores information on the TV system (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, HDTV, etc.) based on the CCD 4 and information on the specifications of the CCD 4 (which will be described later in detail).

The image signal output from the A / D conversion circuit 6 is input to a digital processing circuit 12. Then, the signals are separated into a luminance signal Y and a chroma signal C and output, and are once written in the Y memory 14 and the C memory 13, respectively. These data are read out as a luminance signal Y 'and a chroma signal C', and are subjected to data compression processing by a Y compression circuit 16 and a chroma compression circuit 15, respectively. The compressed luminance signal Y ″ and the compressed chroma signal C ″ are written to the Y ″ memory 19 and the C ″ memory 18 of the card memory 21 which is a flat recording medium for recording image data.

The digital process circuit 12, memories 13, 14 and compression circuits 15, 16 are driven by a main clock pulse MCK-2 of a CCD drive circuit 7, which is a timing pulse. The clock pulse MCK-2 is transmitted to the memory 18 of the card memory 21,
The address control circuit 17 for instructing the 19 write address is also driven. Further, it is assumed that light source information captured by a WB sensor 23 as a white balance sensor is input to the digital process circuit 12 as a white balance signal via a WB control circuit 24.

Further, the luminance signal Y output from the digital process circuit 12 is also input to an exposure control circuit 22, which controls the aperture 2 with the output thereof.
The output of the exposure control circuit 22 is also input to the CCD drive circuit 7 in order to control the photoelectric conversion time. Similarly, the luminance signal Y is supplied to an AF circuit 25 which is an automatic focusing control circuit.
The AF motor 26 is driven by the CPU 30 based on the data, and the focusing of the photographing lens units 1a and 1b is executed. Electronic viewfinder EVF28
E is supplied with an image pickup signal from the S / H circuit 5 and is driven by a synchronization signal from the digital process circuit 12.
It is controlled by the VF drive circuit 27.

An EEPROM built in the detachable imaging unit substrate 9
The data relating to the CCD4 compliant TV system and the specifications of the image pickup device stored in M8 are read by the CPU 30 as the second circuit unit in the state where the substrate 9 is mounted, and the vertical direction of the SSG circuit 7 is determined based on the data. ,
The horizontal synchronization signal and each control signal of the digital process circuit 12 are controlled. Therefore, the imaging and recording system up to the digital process circuit 12 below the CCD 4 is controlled based on the TV system or the like.

The card memory 21 has a data memory corresponding to each image data, and is written by the CPU 30. The data items are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 The data stored in the EEPROM 8 is:
Table 2 shows information related to the TV system and specification information of the image sensor (CCD 4).

Table 2 The SSG 10 needs to output a synchronizing signal of a different frequency depending on the TV system based on the data in the EEPROM 8, and for example, the difference in the frequency of the synchronizing signal between the NTSC system and the PAL system is shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Further, the digital process circuit 12 is controlled based on the data unique to the CCD 4 as shown in Table 2, and the items corresponding to the operation of the circuit 12 that changes corresponding to the data are shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Next, FIGS. 2 and 3 show a front view and a longitudinal sectional view of the electronic camera of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the camera body 40 includes photographing lens units 1a and 1b, an aperture 2, and
A main board 4 having a strobe light emitting section 45 and a control circuit such as the digital process circuit 12 and the CPU 30 and a fitting section 41a of the board connector 4a of the CCD 4 is provided.
1, a memory card 21, a power supply unit 44, and a liquid crystal monitor 42 which is an image display unit disposed on the back side of the main body 40.
And a switch board 43 on which a release switch and the like are disposed.

When the detachable imaging section substrate 9 is mounted, the photoelectric conversion surface of the CCD 4 is mounted on the imaging lens section 1.
The board connector 4a of the CCD 4 is inserted into the connector fitting portion 41a of the main board 41. Note that an EEPROM 8 is built in the imaging unit substrate 9. FIG. 4 is a rear view showing a state where the image pickup unit substrate 9 and the camera body 40 are attached and detached.

The operation of the electronic camera according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, a photographer incorporates an image pickup device having a specification conforming to an arbitrary TV system and incorporates an EEPROM 8 before using the camera. The mounting unit 40 provided on the upper rear surface of the camera body 40
a, and the connector 4a is connected to the main board 41. By this mounting, the camera can perform imaging and recording corresponding to the specification of the CCD 4 based on the TV system stored in the EEPROM 8.

That is, TV system information and CCD specification information as shown in Table 2 of the CCD 4 are fetched from the EEPROM 8 into the CPU 30 in the main body 40 via the connector 4a. Then, based on the data, the SSG circuit 10
The digital processing circuit 12 outputs the respective driving frequencies corresponding to the TV system, or controls the separation of the Y-C signal and the gamma correction according to the specifications of the CCD 4.

In the above-described embodiment, the information of the TV system and the like are stored in the EEPROM 8 in the imaging unit substrate 9. FIG. 5 shows a modification of the imaging unit substrate 9 which is a detachable CCD unit. ′ And the EE
TV without built-in PROM 8 and compliant with CCD 4
A projection 9a provided on the main body of the CCD unit as TV system information holding means indicating which TV system such as NTSC, PAL, SECAM or the like is used.
To be identified by the shape of By providing a detection unit as means for recognizing the possession information in a camera body (not shown), the TV system is discriminated when the unit is mounted, and processing of each image signal is performed based on the discrimination result. Can be done.

Further, as another modified example of the CCD unit, the TV system information is made to correspond not to the above-mentioned projection shape but to a pattern 9b 'as shown in FIG. 6 corresponding to the TV system information. Then, the pattern 9b 'is printed on the unit main body, while a pattern detecting section, which is the holding information recognizing means, is also provided on the camera main body side. It is also possible to determine the TV system.

The present camera system is applicable not only to a still video camera or a conventional movie video camera but also to a digital camcorder.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, even when the camera is separated from the face, the switch can be operated while observing the image display section, and the recording schedule can be set. When displaying video, it is easy to confirm whether to record with a color signal or a monochrome signal before shooting or recording, and when reproducing an image signal from a medium, the compressed image signal from the medium must be read. By checking the data attached to the image before decompressing and reproducing, it is not necessary to perform a color image decompressing process which takes more time in the case of a monochrome image, and the reproduction can be performed quickly. In the case of a monochrome image, it is not necessary to record color information, so that the storage capacity of the recording medium can be saved. Further, by arranging the main board on which many components for signal processing are loaded as described in claim 1, the thickness of the entire camera can be reduced, so that the imaging board and the main board for signal processing are separate. A camera with a thin shape with good operability can be formed, and the signal adjustment of the imaging board can be performed separately from the main board for signal processing. Since the assembly adjustment can be performed in parallel with the camera body, productivity is improved. Since digitized signals can be directly transmitted from the imaging substrate to the main substrate, noise resistance is improved. Further, the image sensor, the S / H circuit, and the A / D conversion circuit can be reliably synchronized, and the cost can be reduced by using a common circuit.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a part having a thickness in the depth direction of the camera, such as a photographic lens or a strobe, is arranged close to one end of the camera body to reduce the area. The required main substrate can be easily arranged.

[0025]

[0026]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a camera system of an electronic camera according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a front view of the electronic camera shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the electronic camera of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a rear view illustrating a state in which an imaging unit substrate, which is a CCD unit of the electronic camera in FIG. 1, is attached to and detached from a camera body;

FIG. 5 is a rear view showing a modification of the CCD unit of the electronic camera shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a TV system information identification pattern diagram in another modified example of the CCD unit of the electronic camera of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b photographic lens unit 9 imaging unit substrate (CCD unit) 21 memory card (flat recording medium) 41 main substrate 42 liquid crystal monitor (image display) 43) Switch board 44 Power supply section

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yuji Ogasawara 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside O-Limpus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Yuki 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside the Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tatsuo Kaime 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside the Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Hidetoshi Yamada 2-43-2, Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo No. Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-64-60070 (JP, A) JP-A-62-180681 (JP, A) JP-A-62-243489 (JP, A) JP-A-1 JP-A-117471 (JP, A) JP-A-1-232890 (JP, A) JP-A-57-78281 (JP, A) JP-A-64-53687 (JP, A) JP-A-63-136775 (JP, A) ) JP 60-46189 (JP, A) JP Akira 62-29289 (JP, A) JitsuHiraku Akira 63-64166 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A power supply unit disposed close to an end of a camera body, an image display unit disposed on a back side of the camera body, and a switch board disposed adjacent to the image display unit A main substrate including at least a digital process circuit disposed substantially parallel to a camera rear portion or a camera front portion facing the camera rear portion; a photographing lens portion; an image sensor; an S / H circuit; and an A / D conversion circuit. An imaging unit substrate that supplies a drive clock from the same clock generation source and outputs a video signal immediately after A / D conversion, and the main substrate includes the video signal and a luminance signal. Color signal
Means for separating and compressing each of the compressed
Record the luminance signal as monochrome image data, or
Signal and color signal are recorded as color image data.
Recording means for recording the indicated data on a flat recording medium.
The flat recording medium is arranged in parallel with the main substrate.
An electronic camera characterized in that it can be installed . 2. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the photographing lens unit is disposed near one end of the camera body, and a strobe light emitting unit is disposed on the same end as the photographing lens unit. An electronic camera according to claim 1.