JPH0265473A - Interchangeable lens system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an interchangeable lens system with high reliability by monitoring a lens unit and a camera main body mutually, when a lens unit side is abnormal, sending absolute value information is sent to the camera main body and if the camera main body is further abnormal, setting the lens unit to an initial value forcibly. CONSTITUTION:If position information is defective due to any cause during data communication between the lens unit and the camera main body, the camera main body monitors the lens unit and the lens unit monitors the camera main body mutually. When the lens side is discriminated to be abnormal, the absolute position information is sent to the camera main body, the position information is matched to restores the system formally. When the camera body is not restored normally, the lens unit is forcibly initialized. Thus, the lens unit is not acted against the camera main body or an abnormal operation is not caused and the interchangeable lens system with high reliability is obtained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an interchangeable lens system for a video camera, and particularly to an initial data value when a transfer error occurs during data transfer between a lens unit and a camera unit. .

[Conventional technology]

In a system where the lens unit and camera body can be separated, they send information to each other through a communication path, and depending on that information, control is performed while maintaining a master-slave relationship, resulting in high reliability.
This results in a video camera that is easy to operate, but if a mistake occurs in the exchange of this information, the relationship of mutual trust breaks down, resulting in a camera that is unreliable and has poor operability. The lens unit receives a control command from the camera body, and based on this command, the lens unit judges the position information from the encoder inside the lens and sends a signal to the driving device such as the aperture to control the driving direction and amount. sending. Conversely, AF, aperture, or zoom unit specifications are transmitted from the lens unit to the camera body. In this way, the lens unit and camera body operate while exchanging information with each other through the communication path, but during data transfer, due to interference such as noise, the communication data may become blurred into unexpected data, and the communication data may be blurred into unexpected data. It may work in a completely different direction. Or the lens barrel of the drive unit is stopped by something,
There may be cases where the robot does not follow the instructions. In view of these drawbacks, the present invention allows the lens unit and camera body to quickly recover and respond to subsequent commands without any trouble even if such a situation occurs.

The purpose is to provide an interchangeable lens system.

[Means for solving the problem (and operation)] According to the present invention, during data communication between the lens unit and the camera body,
If each other's position information becomes incorrect for some reason, the camera body side monitors the lens unit, and the lens unit monitors the camera body, in order to prevent the units from operating abnormally.If the lens side determines that there is an error, the camera Send absolute position information to the main unit, match the position information, and return to normal. When the camera body did not return to normal even after taking the above actions, the lens unit was forced to reset to its initial value. This makes it possible to prevent the lens unit from operating against the will of the camera body or from operating abnormally, making it possible to obtain a highly reliable interchangeable lens system.

〔Example〕

The overall configuration of the embodiment will be explained using FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The camera body is on the right side, and the lens is on the left side of the dotted line in the center of the drawing. Light from a subject (1) is imaged onto an image sensor (3) by an optical system (2). The output is converted into a television signal by a camera signal processing circuit (4) and output.

On the other hand, the television signal uses the well-known AWB (automatic white balance), AF, and AE (automatic exposure control).
Used in various automatic adjustment mechanisms such as

A control signal generation unit (as a control signal source of the automatic adjustment mechanism)
Each control signal is output from 5), (6), and (7).

An AWB control signal that adjusts the color balance of camera signal processing is input to a processing circuit (4), and the remaining control signals are input to a camera microcomputer (9).

Also, a zoom switch (8) that sets the focal length of the optical system.
A control signal generated by is also input to the camera microcomputer (9).

Switches (10), (11), and (12) are switches as identification data forming means that are turned on and off depending on the presence or absence of the AE, AF, and zoom control functions of the camera body, and these switches can be opened or closed. The status is input to the camera microcontroller. The switch may be replaced by a ROM or the like. These identification data, control signals, etc. are transmitted as communication data from the camera side to the lens side via the data communication path (13).

The data communication path (13) is connected to the lens microcomputer (14), and all communication data is once received by the lens microcomputer.

Furthermore, like the camera microcomputer, the states of switches (15), (16), and (17) that open and close corresponding to the AE, AF, and zoom functions on the lens side are input to the lens microcomputer.

Various control signals CI input to the camera microcomputer (9),
C2 and C3 are output by the lens microcomputer (14) to data switching circuits (22), (23), and (24), respectively.

The control signal C1, the lens side AF sensor (20) and the focus determination circuit (21) are sent to the AF data switching circuit (22).
The focus control signal L1 generated by the above is input, and selection is made by the switching flag F1, and one of C1 and Ll is output to the driver (27). The AF actuator (39) controls the optical system (2) according to the output of the driver (27) to bring it into focus. The switching flag Fl is set to H (high) or L (low) depending on the open/close states of the camera side switch (11) and the lens side switch (16).

For example, if the simplest lens side priority is selected, the switch (
Regardless of the state of 11), it is determined only by opening or closing the switch (16). If SW (16)=OPEN, F
1=H selects CI, 5W(16)=CLO3E
In the case of F1=L, Ll is selected.

Of course, various other combinations are possible.

Further, for example, the control signal C2 and the control data L2 from the manual aperture adjuster provided on the lens side are input to the AE data switching circuit (23), and selection switching is performed by the switching flag F2. Output to.

The AE actuator (29) is connected to the driver (26).
), the optical system (2) is controlled and adjusted to the optimum aperture value.

The switching flag F2 changes between H (high) and L depending on the open/closed states of the camera side switch (10) and lens side switch (15).
(low).

For example, in the simplest case of lens side priority, switch (
15) is normally set to 0PEN and C2 is selected to leave control to the camera side, but when the manual aperture is operated, the switch (15) is set to CLO3Et, giving priority to the manual aperture control data.

For example, the control signal C3 and the control data L3 from the focal length adjuster provided on the lens side are input to the zoom data switching circuit (24), and the switching flag F3 allows
The selection is changed and output to the driver (25). The zoom actuator (28) is connected to the driver (25).
) is controlled according to the output of the optical system (2), and the focal length is adjusted to the specified focal length.

The switching flag F3 is set to H (high) depending on the open/closed state of the camera side switch (12) and the lens side switch (17).
and L (low).

For example, in the simplest case where priority is given to boosting, when a zoom operation is performed on either the camera or lens side, the switch (12) and switch (17) are linked to the CLO3E for the period of time that the zoom operation is performed. be done.

C3 or L3 depending on the switch on the CLO8E side
control data is selected. Here, if at the same time (1
If 2) or (17) is CLO5E, the data corresponding to the switch pressed later is selected.

In addition, encoders (31), (32), (33) are installed in the optical system (2) to confirm the operating status of each actuator.
has been established.

It has an encoder (31) for detecting the focus position, an encoder (32) for detecting the aperture state, and an encoder (33) for detecting focal length information by zoom operation, and each detected information is transmitted to the lens microcomputer (14). ). These encoder information are used for intra-lens control, and are also transmitted to the camera microcomputer as necessary and used for AF, AE, etc. processing on the camera side.

Next, an embodiment will be described using the flowchart shown in FIG.

The lens unit is shown in the flowchart on the left, and the camera body is shown on the right.

First, when a lens is attached at Sl, each unit in the lens unit, AF, AE, ZOOM, etc., is set to its initial value position (S2). AE and A on the lens side with S3
F. Read the switch information to open and close corresponding to the ZOOM function. After reading the information from the camera side in the CTL reception at S4, the process proceeds to the next step S5, where the start packet is transmitted. On the other hand, in the flowchart for the camera body on the cloth side, power is first supplied to the camera body (S16), and it is checked whether the lens unit is attached (S17). If it is attached, the process advances to the next step and each camera switch is read. The status of the AE, AF, and ZOOM control functions of the camera body is checked (S18). Then, a start packet is transmitted via the communication path (S19). This means that the lens unit is checking whether the lens unit is ready to start communication.

When the lens side receives this signal by CTL reception in S4, it jumps to the next step address (B), and sends a message to the camera body side via the communication path that it is ready for communication by sending a start packet S5. This signal is received by LTC (S20
), the camera body side sends a lens specification request signal (S21) to the lens side in order to know the type of lens attached. When the lens side receives this through CTL reception (S6), it jumps to the next step address (C) and transmits the status of the presence or absence of lens specifications to the camera side (S7). The camera body side receives this through LTC reception (S22), then issues a unit specification request (523), and transmits it to the lens side. The lens side hears this request through CT L reception (S8) and sends the address (D
) to jump to. In this way, the lens unit and camera body reveal each other's characteristics through the communication path, and from then on, specific control signals are sent and received, and the lens unit and camera body maintain a master-slave relationship. , the camera starts working.

In the unit specifications spec (S9), the specifications of each unit, for example, AF is 1.2m-(1), AE is Fl,
2 to F1a, ZOOM sends the specifications from 35mm to 200mm to the camera body, and receives this by LTC reception (
S24).

Based on this information, the camera body side outputs a control signal to the lens unit side.

If it is an AF unit, it communicates information such as moving at a speed of 1 to the child end point using a relative amount, or if it is an AE, driving the aperture at a speed of 7 to the child end point, or if it is a ZOOM, moving the lens to one end point at a speed of l. Transmit via . The lens side receives this signal through CTL reception (SIO) and sends the position information (S 1.1 ) of each unit to the camera body side. The AF unit has moved to +5 and is now in area 7. AE moves +8 and is in the area. Also, ZoOM is 14
As if moving and being in area O and hitting an end point,
Each location information is finally sent to the camera body.

The camera body side receives this through LTC reception (26), performs arithmetic processing based on this unit position information, and sends the next command to the lens unit, repeating the cycle. For explanation purposes,
Although the flow flows from top to bottom, the next step does not necessarily occur as a result of CTL reception. As a result of receiving the CTL and decoding the command, if it is an initial value setting, then if the lens specification is present at address A, then the address to jump to changes depending on the address B and the contents of the command.

As mentioned above, if noise occurs on the communication path and the transmitted data changes when the transmission is being performed normally, if the lens side is receiving it, it is determined that the communication is normal (512), and if it is abnormal, the count is incremented. (S13). A command is received from the camera side again, and if the data sent similarly is abnormal, the count is increased (S13). If it exceeds a certain number (S14), the count will overflow, and the unit position will be sent as an absolute address (515) to the camera body. Up until now, lens units have been sent in a relative amount of how far they can be moved from the camera side, but due to some obstacle, the mutual relationship has been disrupted, and the lens unit has been shipped in relative quantities.

This means that the camera's location information is incorrect.

Therefore, at this time, the position information of the unit is transmitted from the lens side to the camera body side as an absolute address. After that, the camera and lens position information are matched and the process returns to the normal routine.

This allows the camera and lens position information to be matched without physically moving the unit's position, so even if there is a disturbance such as noise, the photographer does not feel uncomfortable due to sudden changes in the unit. However, if the position information of the lens camera does not match even after the alignment, the CPU on the camera side determines that the position of the encoder and the drive system may be misaligned for some reason.

That is, LTC reception (S26) and communication normal (S27).

counter (328) and overflow (S29).

If the communication abnormality exceeds the standard, the camera side issues a command to the lens side to forcibly reset the lens unit to its initial value (S30), and the lens unit side sends a flow of receiving this command to address A. make it jump

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, if the position information changes between the camera and lens due to some kind of failure (noise on the communication path, unit being held down by hand, etc.) during data transfer between the camera body and the lens unit. The camera body monitors the 1-nons unit, and the lens unit monitors the camera body. If the lens unit determines that there is an abnormality, it sends position information as absolute value information to the camera body, corrects the mutual relationship, and vice versa. If the lens unit is determined to be abnormal, the lens unit is forcibly set to the initial value.

This prevents the lens unit from operating against the will of the camera body or from abnormal operation even if some kind of failure occurs, making it possible to obtain a highly reliable interchangeable lens system.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the configuration of a camera and lens unit embodying the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the camera and lens unit.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a system in which the lens unit and camera unit can be disassembled, position information for the lens unit and camera unit to control movable members within the unit,
If a transfer error occurs during communication using relative value information and an error occurs in each other's data, absolute position information is transferred from one unit to the other unit as unit position information, and each unit's An interchangeable lens system characterized by having a control means for adjusting absolute position information. (2) If the unit absolute position information does not match, in order to initialize the unit position, the position information as an absolute value to be initialized is transferred from the camera unit side to the lens unit side, and at the same time the physical unit position is also initialized. An interchangeable lens system characterized by sending a command to be transferred to a value. (3) The interchangeable lens system according to claim (1), wherein the movable member of at least one unit is reset to an initial position when the absolute position information cannot match.