JPH0563069B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention is a zoom lens that can use a monocular/single focus lens without using a zoom lens, and that has a zoom function via a built-in frame memory. Regarding electronic cameras.

<Conventional Technologies and Problems> Some electronic cameras form a subject image on a solid-state image sensor and record this image information on a video floppy attached to the camera, and others use an A/ There are some that record in digital memory after D conversion.

In such electronic cameras, image processing and recording after the solid-state image sensor is performed using electrical signal processing and magnetic recording, but the optical system used until the subject image is formed on the solid-state image sensor is a conventional silver-based camera. It is the same as an optical camera using salt film. Therefore, when an electronic camera is provided with a zoom function, it is necessary to attach a zoom lens, which is an optical lens.

However, when using such a zoom lens,
Since a fairly large lens will be attached to the electronic camera body, even if the electronic camera body is made smaller, the bulk of the optical lens system will cause the camera to become larger when used, and efforts to make it smaller will not be in vain. .

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention makes use of the characteristics of electronic cameras to provide
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a zoom electronic camera that is miniaturized by having a zoom function.

<Point of view of the invention and means for solving problems> Regarding solid-state image sensors used in electronic cameras, such as CCD and MOS type image sensors,
Usually, the entire image pickup screen is reproduced to correspond to one screen of a television receiver, but advances in LSI technology have made it possible to increase the number of pixels of solid-state image sensors, and it is possible to reproduce a portion of the image pickup screen by making it correspond to one screen of a television receiver. Even if you take it out and play it as a single screen, that is,
Even if the image is played back by zooming up or cropping, it is possible to play back a screen with no particular problem in terms of image quality in terms of resolution. In particular, it can be said that zoomed-up images generally tend to require less resolution. As a specific example, the number of pixels (780 x 500)
When a single screen is created using a CCD, a screen with no practical problems can be obtained even if it is zoomed up 2 times and reproduced as a single screen with the number of pixels (390 x 250).

The configuration of the present invention that achieves the above object based on the above points of view is as follows: (1) a zoom controller that determines the zoom magnification based on a command from the system controller; and a frame memory that determines the zoom magnification based on the zoom magnification command from the zoom controller. Equipped with a memory trimming circuit that selects the read address of
The image information corresponding to the zoom magnification read from the frame memory is written to the recording medium, and further includes (2) a zoom controller that determines the zoom magnification based on a command from a system controller; The present invention is characterized by comprising a memory trimming circuit for storing a zoom magnification command from the frame memory as zoom information in the frame memory, and writing image information and zoom information read from the frame memory into the recording medium.

<Function> If the image information stored in the frame memory is converted into a screen with the number of pixels corresponding to the zoom magnification by selecting an address, an enlarged screen can be obtained even without a zoom lens. In addition, by digitally recording the image information stored in the frame memory as it is and simultaneously recording zoom magnification information on the recording medium, a designated zoom screen can be obtained on the reproduction/editing machine.

<Example> Here, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 shows an example of a zoom electronic camera equipped with a floppy disk. In FIG. 1, 1 is an optical lens.

Furthermore, in FIG. 1, 2 is an aperture, and 3 is a shutter, which together with the optical lens 1 form an optical system.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a solid-state image pickup device such as a CCD, which forms an image of the object from the optical lens 1, converts the amount of light into an electric signal, stores it, and takes it out.

The electrical signal from the solid-state image sensor 4 is amplified by an amplifier 5, converted by an A/D converter 6, and stored in a frame memory 7 having a capacity for one screen. This frame memory 7 will be a DRAM that can be accessed at high speed.

On the other hand, the viewfinder 8 of the camera is provided with a plurality of liquid crystal zoom frames 8a, as shown in FIG. 2, so that the screen can be trimmed only within the frames.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a zoom controller, which determines the zoom magnification based on commands from the system controller 10. In this case, the zoom magnification is determined in stages, such as 1/an integer of the entire screen, for example, when zooming up continuously and gradually.

By determining the zoom magnification of the zoom controller 9, the liquid crystal zoom frame 8a of the viewfinder 8 is determined, and the trimming information of the memory trimming circuit 11 is also determined. This memory trimming circuit 11 is a circuit that selects a read address in the frame memory 7 in accordance with the zoom magnification determined by the zoom controller 9. Therefore, by determining the zoom magnification by the zoom controller 9, the zoom punch 8a of the finder 8 is determined, the memory address is selected by the memory trimming circuit 11, and the image information stored in the frame memory 7 is selected based on this trimming information. is read out. Unlike reading out the entire imaging screen of the solid-state image sensor 4, the number of pixels read out from the frame memory 7 differs depending on the zoom magnification. It is necessary to change the readout frequency according to the zoom magnification. In this case, depending on the frequency selection, beats may occur on the playback screen, so the frequency must be selected to avoid this.

12 is a D/A converter that converts the image information read out from the frame memory 7 into an analog signal;
13 is a signal processing circuit such as FM modulation, and 14 is a recording unit for a removable video floppy 15.

As a result, when the entire subject image formed on the solid-state image sensor 4 is to be recorded on the video floppy 15, all of the image information for one screen stored in the frame memory 7 can be recorded by turning off the shutter 3. The unit 14 magnetically records on the video floppy 15. Also, when zooming up a part of the subject image and recording it on the video floppy 15, the part of the frame memory 7 in which image information for one screen is stored is zoomed up at the zoom magnification determined by the zoom controller 9. Only the address is read out, and the image information of only that part is magnetically recorded on the video floppy disk 15.

FIG. 3 shows how the frame memory 7 and subsequent parts shown in FIG.
5 is shown. That is, the electronic camera main body is equipped with up to frame memory 7, a RAM 16 is removably attached to this main body, all image information for one screen in the frame memory 7 is written in this RAM 16, and furthermore, as shown in FIG. Trimming information is written from the memory trimming circuit 11 shown in FIG. Then, the playback/editing machine 17 uses this trimming information to extract only part of the image information in the RAM 16, that is, the information on the part to be zoomed up.
is read out and re-recorded on the video floppy 15 via the recording unit 14. It should be noted that all image information for one screen is written into the RAM 16 in order to be able to deal with changes in zoom magnification and the like during later editing. Therefore, the editing machine can have the function of changing the trimming information written in the RAM 16 and of trimming. Also here, RAM16
Since it is carried around, it is better to use SRAM, which has low battery power consumption and high speed for memory storage.

In the above example, it is stated that the zoom magnification is determined based on the center of the screen as shown in FIG. 2, but considering that the zoom magnification can be changed by selecting the address of the frame memory 7, It is also possible to change the zoom magnification based on an arbitrary point.

<Effects of the Invention> As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a zoom function within the electronic camera body without using a zoom lens, and it is possible to obtain an innovative and significantly miniaturized electronic camera. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 3 show embodiments of the present invention;
This figure is a block diagram of one embodiment, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a zoom frame of a finder, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a partial configuration of another embodiment. In the figure, 4 is a solid-state image sensor, 7 is a frame memory, 8 is a viewfinder, 8a is a liquid crystal zoom frame, 9 is a zoom controller, 11 is a memory trimming circuit, and 16 is a RAM.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An electronic camera that stores image information from a solid-state image sensor on which an optical image of a subject is formed in a frame memory, and further records the image information from the frame memory on a removable recording medium. , a zoom controller that determines a zoom magnification based on a command from a system controller, and a memory trimming circuit that selects a read address of the frame memory based on a zoom magnification command from the zoom controller, and a memory trimming circuit that selects a read address of the frame memory. A zoom electronic camera characterized in that image information corresponding to the zoom magnification obtained is written on the recording medium. 2. The command from the zoom controller to the memory trimming circuit corresponds to the command from the zoom controller to widen or narrow the zoom frame provided in the finder.
Zoom electronic camera as described in section. 3. The zoom electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the zoom magnification can be changed stepwise in a plurality of stages. 4. In an electronic camera that stores image information from a solid-state image sensor on which an optical image of a subject is formed in a frame memory, and further records the image information from this frame memory on a removable recording medium, a command from a system controller and a memory trimming circuit that stores the zoom magnification command from the zoom controller as zoom information in the frame memory, and the image information and zoom information read out from the frame memory. A zoom electronic camera, characterized in that a zoom electronic camera writes information to the above-mentioned recording medium.