JPH03211972A - Video camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To confirm an image pickup scene without being affected by fade-out or fade-in and to always easily and exactly set the direction of a video camera or the condition of zoom by supplying a video signal from the input side of a fader circuit to the picture display circuit of an electronic view finder. CONSTITUTION:A mode switching circuit 4 is provided between a mixing circuit 3 and a fader circuit 5 and the video signal to be supplied form the mixing circuit 3 is supplied through the mode switching circuit 4 to the fader circuit 5, presented for recording with a VTR and supplied through a switch 4A of the mode switching circuit 4 and a character mixing circuit 9 to a picture display circuit 10 of an electronic view finder 11. Thus, the video signal to be supplied to the picture display circuit 10 of the electronic view finder 11 does not pass through the fader circuit 5 and the level is not related to the level of the fader circuit 5. Further, even when executing fade-in and fade-out while changing the gain of the fader circuit 5, a picture, which image is picked up, is projected as it is.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a video camera with a fade function.

[Conventional technology]

Various functions have been added to recent video cameras, one of which is a fade function. This allows you to perform fade-out, where the image gradually disappears, and fade-in, where the image gradually appears, and fade out when the screen changes.

By performing a fade-in, the screen does not change abruptly at the joint between the screens, and the screen gradually transitions from one screen to the other, making the transition smooth.

Examples of video cameras equipped with such a fade function include ■Hitachi's new VTR integrated camera, VM
An example of this is described in the instruction manual for Model 372, p. 29, in which a fade-in can be performed at the start of imaging, and a fade-out can be performed at the end of imaging. The operations to be performed when taking an image or starting recording are to first erase the image by holding down the fade button before starting recording, then operate the record button to start recording, and then release the fade button. This explains the fade-in in which the image gradually appears as recording begins.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a conventional video camera integrated with a VTR, and 1 is an image pickup device.

2 is a signal processing circuit, 3 is a mixing circuit, 4 is a mode switching circuit, 4A is a switch, 5 is a fader circuit, 6 is a fader control switch, 7 is a modulation circuit, 8 is a video head, 9 is a character mixing circuit, 10 is a An image display circuit, 11 a viewfinder, and 12 a character generation circuit.

13 is a demodulation circuit.

In the figure, an electrical signal output from an image sensor 1 is supplied to a signal processing circuit 2, where it is subjected to processing such as γ correction, white clipping, black clipping, etc., and a luminance signal Y and a color signal C are generated. These luminance signal Y and color signal C are sent to the mixing circuit 3.
The video signals are mixed to form a composite video signal, and this video signal is supplied to the fader circuit 5. The fader circuit 5 is a variable gain amplifier whose gain is controlled by a fader control switch 6. When the fader control switch 6 is held down, the gain of the fader circuit 5 gradually decreases to the minimum, and along with this, the level of the video signal gradually decreases. When the gain is at the minimum, no video signal is output from the fader circuit 5. Furthermore, when the fader control switch 6 is released from the pressed state, the gain of the fader circuit 5 gradually increases from the minimum, and the fader circuit 5 changes from the state where no video signal is output to the state where the video signal is output. The signal level increases as the gain increases.

When the VTR is in the recording state, the video signal output from the fader circuit 5 passes through the mode changeover switch 4, is modulated by the modulation circuit 7, and is supplied to the video head 8.
It is recorded on a magnetic tape (not shown).

Further, when the VTR is in a recording or paused state and imaging is being performed, the switch 4A of the mode switching circuit 4 is closed to the EE side, and the output video signal of the fader circuit 5 is transferred to the switch 4A.

An electronic viewfinder (hereinafter referred to as
It is supplied to 11 image display circuits IO (referred to as EVF). Therefore, the image captured by the image sensor 1 is displayed on the EVFII screen.

Therefore, when recording, the video camera is set to the imaging state, the VTR is stopped, or the EV is set to the recording-stop state.
The captured image is displayed on the FII, and the fader control switch 6 is pressed in this state. This fader control switch 6
If you keep pressing , the gain of the fader circuit 5 will gradually decrease and the image on the EVFII screen will gradually disappear (that is, fade out), and when the gain of the fader circuit 5 reaches the minimum, the image will disappear on the EVFII screen. It ends up.

Note that when the fader control switch 6 is pressed, the character generation circuit 12 generates a character signal. This character signal is mixed with the video signal from the switch 4A in the character mixing circuit 9, and is supplied to the image display circuit IO of the EVFII. For this purpose, as long as the fader control switch 6 is pressed, the screen of the EVFII will be displayed as described in the instruction manual for the Sony VTR integrated camera CCD-■200, page 34. You can display text to indicate that the image is fading.

In this way, when the image disappears on the EVFII screen, operate the record button to put the VTR in the recording state, and release the fader control switch 6.The VTR starts recording, and at the same time, the gain of the fader circuit 5 gradually increases. As a result, the level of the video signal output from the fader circuit 5 gradually increases, and this is recorded on the magnetic tape by the video head 8, and is also supplied to the image display circuit 10, where the image fades in on the screen of the EVFll. . Similarly, a video signal of an image that fades in from the start of recording is recorded on the magnetic tape.

In this way, a fade-in effect can be created at the start of recording, and the EVFII can monitor the image being recorded.

During playback, the switch 4A is switched to the PB side.

A video signal reproduced from a magnetic tape (not shown) by the video head 8 is demodulated by the demodulation circuit 13, and the switch 4A,
It is supplied to EVFll via the character mixing circuit 9. As a result, the reproduced image is displayed on the screen of the EVFII.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above conventional technology. EV
The imaging screen will not be displayed on the F screen. Therefore, it is not possible to optimally set the direction and zoom of the video camera through the EVF screen, and adjustments are made as deemed appropriate.

For this reason, it is not possible to accurately set the direction and zoom of the video camera, and this becomes extremely difficult, especially when the subject is moving.

An object of the present invention is to solve such problems and to always change the captured image to EV regardless of fade-in or fade-out.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a video camera that can be monitored using F.

[Means to solve the problem]

To achieve the above object, the present invention supplies a video signal from the input side of a fader circuit to an image display circuit of an EVF.

[Effect]

A video signal output from a fader circuit is supplied to a VTR or the like. Therefore, this video signal has a level corresponding to the gain of the fader circuit.

On the other hand, since the video signal supplied to the image display circuit of the EVF does not pass through the fader circuit, its level has no relation to the level of the fader circuit. Therefore, even if fade-in and fade-out are performed by changing the gain of the fader circuit, the captured image is displayed as is on the EVF.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a video camera according to the present invention, and parts corresponding to those in Fig. 1 are given the same reference numerals.

This figure differs from the prior art shown in FIG. 2 in that a mode switching circuit 4 is provided between a mixing circuit 3 and a fader circuit 5.

Therefore, the video signal output from the mixing circuit 3 is supplied to the fader circuit 5 via the mode switching circuit 4, and the VT
The signal is used for recording in R, and is also supplied to the EVFII image display circuit 10 via the switch 4A of the mode switching circuit 4 and the character mixing circuit 9. In this way, the video signal is supplied to the image display circuit 10 from the input side of the fader circuit 5, and since this video signal does not pass through the fader circuit 5, the gain of the fader circuit 5 is controlled to perform fade-in and fade-out. Even if you do this, on the EVFII screen,
The image captured by the image sensor 1 is displayed without being affected by this.

Therefore, it is possible to adjust the direction, zoom, etc. of the video camera while always looking at the EVFII screen, and these settings can be made accurately.

Note that when the fader control switch 6 is pressed, the character generation circuit 12 generates a character signal, and this character signal causes characters indicating the fade state to be displayed on the screen of the EVFll. Thereby, even if the image does not fade in or fade out on the EVFII screen when fading is performed using the fader control switch 6, this can be confirmed by the displayed characters.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, even if there is a fade-in at the start of imaging, or a fade-out or fade-in at the time of switching the imaging scene, the E
The captured scene can be confirmed on the VF screen, and the direction and zoom level of the video camera can be easily and accurately set at all times.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a video camera according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional video camera. ■...Image sensor 4...Mode switching circuit 5.
...Fader circuit 6...Fader control switch 8...Video head 9-...Character mixing circuit 10-
...Image display circuit 11...Electronic viewfinder 12...Character generation circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a video camera equipped with a variable gain amplifier and capable of outputting a video signal with level control, the video signal is supplied from the input side of the variable gain amplifier to a screen display circuit of a viewfinder. A video camera characterized by: 2. In claim 1, further comprising means for generating a character signal along with the level of the video signal by the variable gain amplifier and adding it to the video signal supplied to the screen display circuit, and displaying the character signal on the screen of the viewfinder. A video camera characterized in that the video camera is configured to be able to display characters based on the character signal superimposed on an image based on the video signal.