JPH03259232A - Electronic finder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To confirm a video already photographed before it is developed by providing a write address control part which executes write address control so that image data is stored by dividing the storage area of a storage circuit or by thinning it. CONSTITUTION:At the time of consecutive photographing, the write address control part 6 executes the write address control that the image data of every photographing is successively stored in the divided storage area of the storage circuit 7 which is previously divided to the number of the consecutive photographing or executes the write address control that the image data of the first photographing is stored in the whole image storage area and the image data of the second and succeeding photographing is stored by updating the image data which is stored in advance at the intervals of the fixed number of storage element. Then, a read-out address control part 8 executes read-out address control so that a specified image is displayed on a display screen one by one and the plural images are displayed on a divided display screen at the same time when the image is displayed. Thus, the photographed image to the previously fixed number can be optionally seen on one screen by one frame or the plural frames at the same time before they are developed or before they are seen on a monitor television set.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an electronic viewfinder used in a camera.

(Background of the Invention) Normally, when photographing with a camera, a finder is used to set the composition of the subject.

In addition to optical finders, recently electronic finders have been used as finders.

After shooting, what was shot is separately recorded.

For example, in the case of a normal silver halide camera, the subject and other items to be recorded will be recorded in correspondence with the instruction number on the film counter, and in the case of an electronic still camera, the same will be done in correspondence with the instruction number on the shooting counter. A record is made.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above-mentioned record is only a record of characters, and is not a photographed image itself.

However, depending on the shooting situation, it may be necessary to check what kind of image has been shot after shooting. As a result, depending on the situation, it may be necessary to decide whether or not to perform the photographing again or to perform supplementary photographing. Photographic records written in text cannot adequately meet such demands.

However, with a silver halide camera, it is impossible to see what kind of image is being photographed until the film is developed. That is, it is impossible to see what kind of video is being shot at the shooting location.

In addition, with electronic still cameras, you can immediately check the image on a monitor TV etc. after shooting, but you can only view each shot image (one frame) at a time, and there is a problem that you cannot view multiple images at the same time. be.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to arbitrarily view up to a predetermined number of photographed images one frame at a time or simultaneously on the IN surface before viewing them on a monitor TV. Our goal is to provide an electronic finder that can

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following means configuration.

That is, the electronic viewfinder of the present invention includes: an imaging means; a signal processing means for processing an image signal from the imaging means; an A/D converter for converting the image signal from the signal processing means into a digital signal; a storage circuit that sequentially stores digital image signals in storage elements at designated addresses;
Image display means: Leads the digital image signal from the A/D converter to the image display means, leads the digital image signal from the A/D converter to the storage circuit, or leads the digital image signal read from the storage circuit. a switching circuit for switching whether to guide the image to the image display means; and a write address control to sequentially store image data for each shot in divided storage areas divided into a predetermined number of continuous shots in the storage circuit during continuous shooting; Alternatively, the image data of the first shot is stored in the entire image storage area, and the image data of the second and subsequent shots are stored by updating the data at intervals of a fixed number of storage elements. a write address control unit for performing image display; a successive address control unit for performing read address control so as to display designated images one by one on a display screen during image display, and further display a plurality of images simultaneously on a split display screen; This is an electronic viewfinder that is characterized by:

(for production) The effect will be explained below.

In the electronic viewfinder of the present invention, when writing an image signal to the storage circuit, write address control is performed to sequentially store image data for each shot in divided storage areas divided into a predetermined number of consecutive shots in the storage circuit. Or, the image data of the first copy is stored in the entire image storage area, and the image data of the second and subsequent copies are stored by updating the data at intervals of a certain number of storage elements. Address control is performed and a predetermined number of captured images are stored in the storage circuit.

When reading out image signals from the memory circuit, one image is read out so as to be displayed on one screen in accordance with write address control, or if one image is stored in each divided storage area, the memory circuit is By displaying the image signals of the circuit all at once, a plurality of captured images can be viewed at the same time.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the electronic finder of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an electronic finder of the present invention.

C CD (Charge C
When the signal enters the device (upledDevice) 1, it is converted into an electrical signal and sent to the signal processing means 2, where image processing is performed.

The image signal output from the signal processing means 2 is converted into a digital image signal by the A/D converter 3. This digital image and image signal are input to the switching circuit 4, and when there is no need to store them (for example, when the image is being viewed before shooting), they are sent as they are to the image display means 5, where the current viewfinder is displayed. The captured image is displayed on a liquid crystal monitor, etc.

On the other hand, when photographing, the digital image signal is switched to be input to the storage circuit 78. The digital image signal input to the storage circuit 7 is stored in the storage element at the address specified by the write address control unit 6 for each pixel signal.

Various ways of specifying this address can be considered, but for example, when the image storage area of the memory circuit is divided into multiple parts and stored as shown in Figure 2, one pixel is stored as shown in Figure 3 (a). Addressing is performed so that one pixel signal for each division number is stored in a storage element corresponding to one pixel in the divided storage area from the corresponding signal column.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which the image storage area of the storage circuit is divided into a plurality of parts to store images.

Figure (a) shows the case of 4 divisions, and Figure (b) shows the case of 9 divisions.1 To explain the case of 4 divisions in Figure (a), the digital image signal of the first photograph is divided into the divided storage areas ( 1), the digital image signal of the second photo is stored in the divided storage area (2), the digital image signal of the third photo is stored in the divided storage area (3), and the digital image signal of the fourth photo is stored in the divided storage area (3). A case is shown in which the image signal is stored in the divided storage area (4). Of course, which copy is to be stored in which divided storage area can be freely determined by the method of address control.

When storing in divided storage areas in this way, the storage capacity naturally becomes smaller, so the number of digital image signals to be stored must also be reduced. When the digital image signal of one photographed image is stored in an area, if we take a sequence of signals (signals represented by one pulse waveform) to be stored in the storage element corresponding to one pixel, from this sequence, the following diagram ( As shown in b), one out of every four signals will be stored in the divided storage area.In the case of nine divisions shown in Figure 2(b), one out of every nine signals will be stored in the divided storage area. The signal will be stored.

The above is a case where the image storage area of the storage circuit 7 is divided and one captured image is stored in each divided storage area.

Another way of specifying addresses is to store the digital image signal of the first picture using the entire image storage area of the storage circuit, and from the second picture onwards, the digital image signal of the first picture is stored in the first picture at a predetermined position.
This is a method of addressing that stores data by updating it.

For example, when storing captured images up to the fourth shot, the second memory element that stores the data of the first shot,
6th, 10th, etc., generally (4n-2
)-th (n=1.2.3...) memory element is updated with data in the same order as the data of the second photo.

Similarly, the data for the third photo is 3rd, 7th, 11th,
. . . Generally, the data in the (4n-1)th memory element is updated with the data in the same order as the third photo.

For the fourth shot, the data in the 4nth storage element is updated in the same way.

The above is an example in which it is possible to store up to the fourth shot, but in general, if the number before n in the above formula is set to m, it becomes possible to store up to the fourth shot. FIG. 3(C) is a diagram showing the case where m=2. This method of addressing is called a thinning method, in contrast to the division method described above. In this way, whether it is a split type or a thinning type, as the number of shots that can be stored increases, 1
Naturally, the image quality will be lower because the number of memory elements allocated to each image will be reduced, but with silver halide cameras and electronic still cameras, it is possible to use text to describe what kind of image is being photographed before it is developed or viewed on a TV monitor. For the purpose of confirmation instead of recording, this is sufficient to meet the needs.

Next, the read address control section 8 will be described.

If the image is stored in a divided format, a divided image as shown in FIG. 2 can be displayed on the image display means by specifying an address to scan the entire image storage area of the memory circuit. .

Furthermore, by specifying an address to scan only the designated divided storage area, it is possible to display one shot's worth of video.

If the data is stored in a thinned format, in the example above, if you want to display the first image, 4n-3 (n=1
．． 2, 3. If you want to display the image of the second picture, select every <4n-2)th memory element,
In the case of the third shot, each image can be displayed independently by specifying an address to read and scan the memory element every (4n-3)th, and in the case of the fourth shot, to read and scan the memory element every 4nth. can.

The CPU 9 outputs control signals necessary for operating the write address control section 6, the memory circuit 7, the read address control section 8, and others.

In addition, a shutter signal is input to the CPU 9, whereby the CPU 9 learns that the camera has photographed the subject and starts storing the image captured by the finder. In addition, CCD1
The imaging light may be from a lens unique to the finder, from an image passed through the lens of the camera body and reflected by a mirror, or from light transmitted through a semi-transparent mirror.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the electronic finder of the present invention has a write address control unit that controls the write address so that the storage area of the memory circuit is divided and stored or is stored in a thinned out manner. Because of this, multiple captured images can be stored without increasing the capacity of the storage circuit, and the stored images can be read out from the storage circuit so as to be displayed one by one.
Since it has a read address control section that controls read addresses so that all images stored in the divided storage areas are displayed at the same time, images that have already been shot with the camera can be used before developing the film or displaying them on a monitor TV. This has the effect of allowing you to check the images.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an electronic finder of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of divided storage of a memory circuit, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of image signals in divided storage and thinned-out storage. 1...CCD, 2...signal processing means, 3...A/D converter, 4...switching circuit, 5... Image display means, 6...
...Write address control unit, 7...Memory circuit,
8... Read address control section, 9...
・CPU. $ / figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] an imaging means; a signal processing means for image-processing the image signal from the imaging means; an A/D converter for converting the image signal from the signal processing means into a digital signal; and an A/D converter for converting the image signal from the signal processing means into a digital signal; a memory circuit for storing data in the memory element; and an image display means; for guiding the digital image signal from the A/D converter to the image display means or for guiding the digital image signal from the A/D converter to the memory circuit; a switching circuit for switching whether or not to guide the digital image signal read from the storage circuit to the image display means; and a divided storage area in which image data for each shot is divided into a predetermined number of consecutive shots in the storage circuit during continuous shooting; Either perform write address control to sequentially store the image data in the first copy, or store the image data of the first copy in the entire image storage area, and from the second copy onwards, the previously stored image data is stored at intervals of a fixed number of storage elements. A write address control unit that controls the write address to be stored by updating; and a read address control unit that displays the specified images one by one on the display screen when displaying the image, and also controls the read address so that multiple images are displayed simultaneously on the split display screen. An electronic finder comprising: a read address control section for performing;