JPH0730802A - Electronic camera system for panorama image pickup - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a panorama image pickup use electronic camera system by which a panorama picture with excellent picture quality is easily picked up. CONSTITUTION:The system is made up of an electronic camera 101 and a supporter 102, supporting the electronic camera 101. The electronic camera 101 is provided with an image pickup means 114 having plural element arrays and converting an object image into an electric signal, an image pickup optical system 111, a recording means recording picture data onto a storage medium 118 and a control means 119 controlling the image pickup operation. The supporter 102 is provided with a rotary means 130 rotating the electronic camera 101 by a predetermined angle in a specific direction. The control means 119 uses at least part of the element arrays arranged in a direction orthogonal to the specific direction among the element arrays of the image pickup means 114 to pick up plural predetermined angular ranges while operating the rotary means 130.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic camera system for panoramic photography.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is sometimes desirable to take a so-called panoramic photograph because a vast scene or scene can be viewed at a glance on a single screen. Because of its simplicity, the so-called "joint shooting" method has been conventionally used. This is to fix the camera on a tripod, rotate the camera horizontally from one direction to the other direction by the pan head, and overlap the screen by a certain size while dividing the target panorama into several pieces and shoot. These photographs are spliced together so that the boundaries are not visible when creating the prints.

Conventionally, there are cameras dedicated to panoramic photography. This is because the silver salt film is held in a concave shape with respect to the taking lens, a longitudinal slit is provided on the front surface of the film, and the taking lens and the slit are rotated horizontally relative to the film. It is intended to be continuously exposed to a wide range of subject images.

Further, as seen in security cameras and the like, there is also known a method of photographing a wide-angle subject image by photographing while rotating a video camera.

[0005]

However, the conventional panoramic photographing method as described above has the following problems. That is, in the method called joint shooting, in order to complete a photograph, it is necessary to perform a complicated cutting and pasting work for joining a plurality of photographs, and at the time of joining, distortion aberration of a photographing lens ( Distortion) tends to cause discontinuity at the joint.

On the other hand, if the camera for panoramic shooting is used, it is not necessary to perform the complicated work such as the joint shooting, but a special camera for panoramic shooting, which is different from general cameras, must be prepared. In such a camera for exclusive use of panoramic shooting, the structure is complicated because the shooting lens and the film move relative to each other, and the manufacturing cost is high. However, there is a problem in that it is not versatile and that deterioration of the image and uneven exposure are likely to occur due to mechanical errors in the mechanism for moving the taking lens and the film relative to each other.

Further, the exposure time of the film is determined by the rotation speed of the taking lens, and the time for exposing the range of the taking angle divided by the slit is equal to the time for the taking lens to turn the angle. There is also a problem that the free exposure time cannot be set due to the restrictions of the rotation mechanism of the. This problem is particularly noticeable in bright outdoors where it is necessary to shorten the exposure time.

Also, the exposure time may vary due to uneven rotation of the rotating mechanism, and a stripe pattern due to uneven exposure may appear in a direction orthogonal to the rotating direction. Further, the subject is dark and illumination is required. In this case, since a camera of this type continuously captures images as described above, it is necessary to use a thermal bulb that does not emit light and blink, and there is also a problem that it is not possible to illuminate with a simple strobe.

Further, in the case of printing the photographed film, since the aspect ratio of the photographed image differs from that of a normal photograph, it cannot be dealt with in a general developing room, and in most cases, the photographer does the burning himself. , Had to develop.

Further, in the method of photographing a wide-angle object image by photographing while rotating the above-mentioned video camera, not only a reproducing apparatus for reproducing an image and a monitor such as a CRT are required, but also Playing the video requires as much time as the camera rotated during shooting. Furthermore, in order to print this image and obtain a panoramic photograph, it is necessary to perform a work of joining a plurality of photographs, which is the same as the above-mentioned joint photographing, which is complicated.

The present invention has been made to solve the problems in the conventional panoramic photography, and an object thereof is to obtain an electronic camera system for panoramic photography capable of easily taking a panoramic photograph of good image quality.

[0012]

[Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve the above object,
The invention according to claim 1 of the present application is an electronic camera system comprising an electronic camera for obtaining an electronic image of a subject and a supporting device for supporting the electronic camera, wherein the electronic camera has a plurality of element rows. An image pickup means for converting the image into an electric signal; a photographing optical system for forming a subject image on the image pickup means; a recording means for recording the subject image converted into the electric signal by the image pickup means; and a photographing operation. And a control means for controlling the electronic device, wherein the supporting device includes a rotation means for rotating the electronic camera in a specific direction by a predetermined angle according to a photographing operation, and the control means operates the rotation means while operating the rotation means. An electronic camera system for panoramic photography, in which at least some of the element rows arranged in a direction orthogonal to the specific direction among the element rows of the image pickup means are used to sequentially perform photographing in a plurality of predetermined angle ranges. Which relate.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image pickup means having a plurality of element rows for converting a subject image into an electric signal, a photographing optical system for forming the subject image on the image pickup means, and the image pickup means. An electronic camera supported by a supporting device that includes a recording unit that records a subject image converted into an electric signal and a control unit that controls a photographing operation, and that includes a rotating unit that rotates the camera in a specific direction. Then, the control means operates a plurality of predetermined element rows using at least a part of the element rows of the image pickup means arranged in a direction orthogonal to the specific direction while operating the rotating means. The present invention relates to an electronic camera for panoramic photography that sequentially captures images in an angular range.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera supporting device for panoramic photography, which supports the electronic camera and is provided with a rotating means for rotating the electronic camera in a specific direction in accordance with a photographing operation of the electronic camera. It is related.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention of the first or second aspect, the exposure time for the image pickup means or the charge accumulation time in the image pickup means is within a time shorter than the rotation time of the predetermined angle. The present invention relates to a panoramic image capturing electronic camera system or a panoramic image capturing electronic camera including an exposure amount control unit for controlling.

The invention of claim 5 is the invention of claim 1, 2 or 4.
In any one of the inventions, the invention relates to an electronic camera system for panoramic photography or an electronic camera for panoramic photography, which is provided with an illuminating unit that illuminates a subject according to the rotation of the electronic camera by the rotating unit.

[0017]

In the present invention constructed as described above, an image in an arbitrary angle range desired by the photographer can be obtained by a plurality of photographing operations. That is, if the angle range of the image that the photographer desires to shoot is θ, and each angle when the angle θ is divided into a plurality of angles is dθ _n (n = 1, 2, 3, ...) (θ = dθ) ₁ + dθ ₂ + ... + dθ _n ), at least part of the element array of the image pickup means first takes an image in the angle dθ ₁ range, and then the turning means of the supporting device turns the electronic camera by dθ _1. After that, photographing is performed in the angle dθ ₂ range. When the photographing in the dθ ₂ range is completed, the rotation means of the supporting device rotates the electronic camera by dθ _{2 and} the photographing in the angle dθ ₃ range is performed. In this way, images in the range θ are sequentially photographed for each dθ _n , these images are joined together and recorded in the recording means.

Each photographing for each dθ _n is performed by using at least a part of the element rows of the image pickup means arranged in the direction orthogonal to the rotation direction. In order to prevent discontinuity at the joint between images due to aberration, it is desirable to use an element array near the center of the image pickup means.

In the camera system of the present invention, unlike the conventional camera dedicated to the panorama described above, the photographing optical system and the image pickup means are integrally rotated, so that the apparatus is simplified and uneven exposure occurs. And a high quality image can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, the electronic camera is provided with a panoramic shooting mode and a normal shooting mode, so that not only panoramic shooting but also shooting in a normal angle range can be performed. It is possible to realize a camera system capable of

That is, the electronic camera is provided with a sensor for detecting that the camera is mounted on the supporting device, and when the sensor detects that the camera is mounted on the supporting device, the control means is provided. Is performing the above-described series of panoramic photographing operations, and when the sensor does not detect that the camera is mounted on the supporting device, the control means uses all pixels (all element rows) of the imaging means. It is configured to perform shooting in a normal angle range.

In the invention according to claim 4, the exposure amount control means causes the exposure time for the image pickup means or the charge accumulation time in the image pickup means to be shorter than the rotation time of the predetermined angle by the rotation means. Controlled within. Therefore, in this camera system, the exposure time is determined by the rotation speed of the shooting lens, as in the conventional camera for panoramic shooting described above, and the exposure time cannot be freely set due to the restrictions of the rotation mechanism of the shooting lens. It is possible to set an optimum exposure time, especially in bright outdoors where it is necessary to shorten the exposure time.

The exposure amount control means is a mechanical means (for example, a mechanical shutter) for controlling the incidence of the image pickup light on the image pickup means, and an electrical means for controlling the charge accumulation time in the image pickup means. It includes both means and means.

Further, in the invention according to claim 5, the illuminating means illuminates an object to be photographed (subject) according to the rotation of the electronic camera by the rotating means, and the illuminating light is used to perform the photographing. . That is, the illumination light is emitted for each shooting of each d [theta] _n ranges, each d [theta] _n these lighting
The range is photographed.

[0025]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic camera system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the electronic camera system according to the present embodiment includes an electronic camera 101.
And a support device 102 that supports the electronic camera 101 and rotates the electronic camera 101.

The electronic camera 101 includes a taking lens 111 having a zoom function, an aperture 112, an optical filter 113,
An image sensor 114 for converting a subject image into an electric signal, a signal processing circuit 115 for performing a certain process on the image signal, an A / D conversion circuit 116 for converting the image signal into a digital signal,
A buffer memory 117 for temporarily storing an image signal, a memory card 118 for recording an image signal, a lens driving mechanism 120 for driving a photographing lens for focusing and zooming, a photometric element 121 for measuring the brightness of an object, a white balance sensor. 122, a strobe 123 for illuminating a subject, and a control circuit 11 for controlling a series of shooting operations.
9 is equipped.

On the other hand, the supporting device 102 is the electronic camera 10
1 with a connecting portion 136 for mounting the head 1.
And a tripod 133 that supports the platform 103. On the platform 103, the electronic camera 10 attached to the connecting portion 136 is attached.
A motor 130 that rotates 1 together with the connecting portion 136;
A motor control circuit 131 for driving the motor 130,
An encoder 132 for detecting the rotation angle of the motor 130 is built in. Further, the tripod 133 is screwed by a screw hole 134 provided on the lower surface of the platform 103.

Motor control circuit 131 and encoder 13
2 is electrically connected to the control circuit 119 of the electronic camera 101 via the contact 126 and the brush 135. Further, a cylindrical lens 124 is provided on the front surface of the connecting portion 136, and when the electronic camera 101 is mounted on the connecting portion 136 of the supporting device 102, the cylindrical lens 124 is attached to the strobe 1.
The light emitting portion 23 is covered.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the structure of the main part of this camera system. In this camera system, the electronic camera 101 is mounted on the camera platform 103 in a state (vertical position) rotated by 90 degrees from the normal posture (upright position), and therefore, the image sensor 114 has a longitudinal direction which is the vertical direction V. Is consistent with. In this camera system, the image sensor 114
A part of the element array is used for shooting.

That is, by picking up an image signal from only the central element row 114a of the pixels of the image pickup element 114, an image of the range dθ is taken. This element array 114a
At the position shown in the figure, the number of pixels in the vertical direction is v (matches the maximum number of pixels in the longitudinal direction), and the number of pixels in the horizontal direction is h (usually 1 to 10 pixels).

The photographing operation of this electronic camera system will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step 301, a shooting start position is set by an operating means not shown in FIG. 1, and a shooting angle is similarly input in step 302. In step 303, the number of shootings N is calculated from the shooting angle and one shooting range dθ. To be done.

That is, when the photographing angle desired by the photographer is θ, the range photographed by one exposure is dθ, and the number of photographing times N is θ / dθ. For example, when shooting the entire circumference (360 degrees) of the camera, N = 3
It becomes 60 / dθ. The photographer may be, for example, 180 ° or 270
It is possible to input a desired angle such as ° and perform photographing.

Regarding the input of the photographing angle, the photographing angle from the photographing start position may be inputted by a numerical value, or the camera may be actually rotated to the photographing end position to start the photographing start position. It is also possible to have a structure in which the shooting operation is started after confirming the end position with the finder.

In step 304, if the prescan mode is set by the operating means (not shown) so that prescan is performed before photographing, the sequence moves to step 320, and if the mode is not set, Go to step 305. The prescan mode will be described later.

In step 305, the diaphragm 112 is narrowed down and a pan focus mode is set in which an object within a predetermined object depth is in focus. And step 30
When the release of the camera is operated in step 6, step 307
Then, in step 308, zooming and focusing are prohibited until the photographing is completed. The reason why zooming and focusing are prohibited in this way is that if zooming or focusing is performed during panoramic photography, the image magnification of the subject changes and discontinuity occurs in the recorded image.

In the following step 309, the subject brightness B is measured. At this time, the aperture value is determined in step 305, so the exposure time is determined in step 310 based on this value.

In step 311, exposure is performed by accumulating charges in the image pickup device 114 according to the exposure time determined in step 310. That is, the taking lens 1
The subject light focused by 11 is focused by the diaphragm 112 to a predetermined light amount, and is focused on the image sensor 114 through the optical filter 113. In the image sensor 114, electric charges are accumulated for the previously determined exposure time, and the accumulated charges are output to the signal processing circuit 115. The signal processing circuit 115 adjusts the white balance so as to satisfy the white balance measured by the white balance sensor 122, and further performs gamma correction and edge enhancement processing.

The image signal subjected to the signal processing is stored in the buffer memory 117. It should be noted that this image signal relates to an image of the angle dθ obtained by the element array 114a of the image pickup element shown in FIG.
Is expressed by the following equation, where p is the pixel pitch in the horizontal direction and f is the focal length of the taking lens.

Dθ = sin ⁻¹ (p · h / f)

The photographing range dθ is defined by the photographing lens 111.
Proportional to the angle of view and the number of lines h to be captured in the image sensor,
Although it is a variable value, it may be a fixed value if the taking lens cannot be replaced.

Then, step 312 and step 31
3, the control circuit 119 outputs a drive signal to the motor control circuit 131 while taking in the detection signal from the encoder 132, and the motor 130 causes the electronic camera 101 to operate.
Is rotated by dθ. Then, the photographing / rotating operations of steps 309 to 313 are repeated N times (step 314), and photographing within the photographing angle θ is performed.

When the photographing of the range θ is completed, step 31
5, the image data stored in the buffer memory 117 is stored in the memory card 118 together with the data such as the aspect ratio, the number of pixels, the date, the direction, etc.
And the operation is terminated.

When the pre-scan mode is set before photographing in step 304, the following processing is performed. That is, in step 320, the camera 101
The distance L to the subject in front of the is measured, and step 32
At 1, the brightness B of the subject is measured. In step 322, the drive signal is output from the control circuit 119 to the motor control circuit 131, and the motor 130 is driven. It should be noted that the distance L to the subject can be configured to be input by the photographer himself.

The electronic camera 1 is driven by the motor 130.
The motor 130 is rotated by step 323 until 01 rotates by dθ, and the routine proceeds to step 324. Then, the steps 320 to 323 are repeated until the above distance measurement and photometry operations are performed N times, that is, until the measurement of the range of the photographing angle θ is completed.

When all the measurements in the range of the photographing angle θ have been completed, the maximum distance L to the object is determined in step 325.
_{The max} and the minimum distance L _min, and the maximum brightness B _max and the minimum brightness B _{min of the} subject are calculated. Then, the aperture value and the focusing position of the taking lens 111 are determined so that the farthest subject and the closest subject are within the subject depth as much as possible, and the process proceeds to step 306.

As described above, in the present camera system, since the taking lens 111 and the image pickup device 114 rotate integrally with each other as described above, it is different from the conventional camera dedicated to panoramic photography using a silver halide film. Also, there is no occurrence of image deterioration or exposure unevenness due to a mechanical error of a mechanism for moving the taking lens and the image pickup element (film) relative to each other.

Since the charge accumulation time of the image pickup device 114 can be set with high accuracy independently of the time when the electronic camera 101 rotates dθ, it is possible to sufficiently cope with a bright subject. Therefore, uneven exposure does not occur.

Explaining the specific value of the photographing range dθ, the image pickup element 114 is for 1/3 inch NTSC, and the focal length of the photographing lens 111 is 5.5 mm.
Then, the normal shooting angle is 33 °. Image sensor 1
The number of 14 scanning lines is 525, and when using the central 10 lines (h = 10), dθ =
It becomes 0.63 °. Assuming that the exposure time for one exposure is 1/60 seconds, for example, in order to photograph a range of 360 °, it takes about 9.5
Seconds are needed. If it is desired to shorten the shooting time, more lines may be used. For example, if h = 20, shooting can be completed in half the time (about 4.75 seconds).

When the photographing angle is within 1 °, the image shift due to the distortion of the photographing lens and the rotation of the camera is almost negligible.

After shooting and recording dθ, h
By rotating the camera by an angle (here, 0.03 °) corresponding to == 0.5, and shooting between each line, 2
It is also possible to obtain image information with double resolution.

Next, the photometric operation of the camera system and the flash light emitting operation will be described. As aforementioned,
In this camera system, photometry is performed each time the electronic camera 101 rotates dθ, but the photometric range by the photometric element 121 is the range of the angle θ ₁ shown in FIG. 2, which is wider than the one-time shooting range dθ. Is measured. For this reason, even when the brightness of the subject changes greatly depending on the location, the change in the photometric value becomes relatively gradual, and the exposure amount does not greatly change in shooting for each dθ.

Therefore, particularly in panoramic photography, the background is often an object having a relatively small brightness difference, such as an indoor wall surface or the outdoor sky. In such a case, an object having a high brightness such as a light bulb is used. The exposure amount changes remarkably due to being reflected in a part, and a vertical stripe pattern appears in the background.
The image quality does not deteriorate.

Similarly, in the white balance setting, a range θ ₁ wider than the one-time shooting range dθ is measured by the white balance sensor 122 for each shooting operation. Therefore, the white balance is sharply changed. Even if the subject changes to, the same striped pattern does not occur in the background.

In the present camera system, when the photometric value by the photometric element 121 is smaller than a preset value, automatically, and when the photographer instructs flash photography with a switch (not shown), the dθ The strobe 123 emits light at each shooting.

At this time, the light emission interval of the strobe 123 becomes shorter than that in normal photographing, so that the time for charging the condenser inside the strobe becomes shorter, which may reduce the amount of emitted light. Therefore, the following illumination is performed in this camera.

As shown in FIG. 2, the strobe 123 has an illumination capability in the range of the angle θ ₂ , but as described above, the cylindrical lens 124 is provided on the front surface of the strobe 123. The illumination light emitted from the strobe 123 by the lens 124 is condensed only in the horizontal direction. That is, the illumination light emitted from the strobe 123 at an angle θ ₂ is condensed to dθ ₂ so that the illumination light amount is increased, and thus the reduction of the emitted light amount is prevented. The illumination range dθ ₂ is, of course, larger than the photographing range dθ.

The panoramic photographing operation of the camera system according to the present embodiment has been described above, but the electronic camera system can also perform photographing with a normal aspect ratio. That is, in the present electronic camera system, when the electronic camera is mounted on the supporting device 102, a detection signal is input to the control circuit 119 from a detecting unit (not shown) to perform the panoramic photographing operation described above, but the electronic camera 101 is supported by the supporting device. When it is not mounted on the image pickup device 102, the control circuit 119 performs a photographing operation with a normal aspect ratio using all the pixels of the image pickup device 114.

In the present embodiment, the exposure amount is controlled by controlling the charge accumulation time in the image pickup device 114 as described above, but the diaphragm 112 and the optical filter 1 are controlled.
A mechanical shutter may be provided between the shutter 13 and the shutter 13 and the exposure amount may be controlled by the shutter.

Further, in the present embodiment, the closed loop using the encoder 132 is used to rotate the camera 101 by dθ as described above (steps 312 to 31).
3), a stepping motor is used as the motor 130,
It is also possible to control by an open loop.

From the relationship between the rotation speed and the exposure time,
If the deterioration of the image due to camera shake is not noticeable without stopping the motor and stopping the electronic camera for each shooting in each dθ range, continuous shooting and recording is performed without stopping the motor. You may. It is also possible to record the direction and amount of blurring of the image and the exposure time together with the image data so that the blurring can be made inconspicuous by the image processing technique during reproduction.

Further, in this embodiment, the electronic camera 101
Although the support device 102 and the support device 102 are separate bodies, they may be integrally configured. Further, the tripod 133 and the platform 103 can be integrated.

When the subject changes relatively slowly with the passage of time, the photographing angle is 360 degrees or more, for example, 10 rotations of the electronic camera, that is, 360 degrees.
By setting it to 0 degree, it is possible to capture a plurality of subjects that change with the passage of time in one continuous panoramic photograph.

The output (printout) of the image recorded in the memory card 118 will be described. The image recorded by the panoramic photography has a horizontally long shape, but if the printer for printing uses so-called roll paper and the aspect ratio can be freely selected, the roll direction of the roll paper Should be the same as the rotation direction in the photographing. As a result, a photograph as shown in FIG. 6 is obtained.

If the paper to be printed is not roll paper and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the paper are determined in advance and the aspect ratio cannot be set freely, either print small so that the paper fits in the paper, or May be divided into several sheets, and the photographer may join the plurality of sheets after printing is completed. To divide this single panoramic image into multiple normal aspect ratio images,
The determination may be made by the printer.

Further, the image information recorded in the memory card is recorded again from the horizontally long aspect ratio into a plurality of images having a normal aspect ratio (for example, 3: 4 according to the NTSC system). You may do it. In this case, even if the images are joined together later, discontinuity due to the distortion of the taking lens does not occur at the joint unlike the conventional so-called joint photographing.

Further, it is also possible to print out in polar coordinates as shown in FIG. 7 by processing the image signal as required. Further, at this time, by providing an azimuth measuring means such as an azimuth magnet on the supporting device, it is possible to record the direction information together with the image data and print the direction together with the image as shown in FIG.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted. .

As shown in the figure, the camera system of this embodiment comprises a camera 401 and a supporting device 402 that supports the camera 401 and that rotates the camera 401 in accordance with a photographing operation. However, a known video camera equipped with a video tape recorder is used as the camera 401.

On the other hand, the supporting device 402 includes a vertical synchronizing signal separation circuit 441, an A / D conversion circuit 116, a buffer memory 117, a motor 130, and a motor control circuit 131, and outputs from the output terminal 442 of the video camera 401. The generated video signal is transmitted to the cable 444 and the input terminal 44.
The video signal input to the A / D conversion circuit 116 and the vertical synchronization signal separation circuit 441 through the A.D.3 and converted to a digital signal is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 117. Memory card 118
Recorded in. The output of the vertical sync signal separation circuit 441 is input to the motor control circuit 131 and the control circuit 119.

Further, the video camera 401, like the electronic camera 101 of the first embodiment, uses 90 ° from the upright state in order to effectively use the longitudinal direction of the image pickup device 114.
It is mounted on the support device 402 in a rotated state, and the longitudinal direction of the image sensor 114 is aligned with the vertical direction.

The photographing operation of the camera system of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in steps 501 to 502, the photographer uses the support device 40.
As in the first embodiment, the shooting start position and the shooting angle are input by operating means (not shown) provided in the second embodiment. Then, in step 503, the control circuit 119 calculates the number of times of photographing.

When the start of shooting is instructed by an operation means (not shown) in step 504, the video camera 401 converts the subject image into an electric video signal by the image sensor 114 and outputs the video signal from the output terminal 442. In addition, zooming and focusing of the taking lens 111 are prohibited.

Then, in step 505, the output terminal 442
The video signal output from the
4 and the input terminal 443, the signal is input to the A / D conversion circuit 116, converted into a digital signal, and then stored in the buffer memory 117. Here, since the video signal input from the video camera 401 is a signal from all the pixels of the image sensor 114, only the data corresponding to the pixel row 114a of the first embodiment is stored in the buffer memory 117. Is stored.

A vertical synchronizing signal is input to the control circuit 119, and the control circuit 119 controls so that data is stored in the buffer memory 117 within one cycle of the synchronizing signal.

On the other hand, the vertical synchronizing signal separated from the video signal from the video camera 401 is the motor control circuit 1
31. The steps 505 to 508 are repeated until the shooting of the input shooting range θ is completed by shooting N times based on this synchronization signal.

When the photographing of the photographing range θ is completed, the image data is transferred from the buffer memory 117 to the memory card 118 and recorded in step 509. As described above, according to the second embodiment, it is possible to perform panoramic shooting using a well-known video camera having a high diffusion rate.

[0077]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to easily take a panoramic photograph of good image quality by using an ordinary electronic camera for photographing without using a special dedicated camera.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a main part of the electronic camera system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the electronic camera system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of the electronic camera system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an image taken by the electronic camera system of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image captured by the electronic camera system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 electronic camera 102 support device 103 pan head 111 shooting lens 112 aperture 113 optical filter 114 image sensor 115 signal processing circuit 116 A / D conversion circuit 117 buffer memory 118 memory card 119 control circuit 120 lens drive mechanism 121 photometric element 122 white balance sensor 123 Strobe 124 Cylindrical surface lens 130 Motor 131 Motor control circuit 132 Encoder 133 Tripod 440 Video tape recorder 441 Vertical synchronization signal separation circuit In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An electronic camera for obtaining an electronic image of a subject,
An electronic camera system comprising a supporting device for supporting the electronic camera, wherein the electronic camera has a plurality of element rows, an image capturing means for converting the subject image into an electric signal, and the subject image for the image capturing means. An image pickup optical system for forming an image, a recording unit for recording a subject image converted into an electric signal by the image pickup unit, and a control unit for controlling an image pickup operation, and the support device according to the image pickup operation. A rotation unit that rotates the electronic camera in a specific direction by a predetermined angle, and the control unit operates the rotation unit, and in the element array of the imaging unit, a direction orthogonal to the specific direction. An electronic camera system for panoramic photography, in which photography is sequentially performed in a plurality of predetermined angle ranges by using at least a part of the element rows arranged in the. 2. An image pickup device having a plurality of element arrays for converting a subject image into an electric signal, a photographing optical system for forming a subject image on the image pickup device, and the image pickup device converted into an electric signal. An electronic camera supported by a supporting device that includes a recording unit that records a subject image and a control unit that controls a photographing operation, and that includes a rotating unit that rotates the camera in a specific direction. A means for operating a plurality of predetermined angle ranges by operating at least a part of the element rows of the image pickup means arranged in a direction orthogonal to the specific direction while operating the rotating means. An electronic camera for panoramic photography that sequentially performs. 3. An electronic camera support device for panoramic photography, which supports the electronic camera and is provided with rotating means for rotating the electronic camera in a specific direction in accordance with a photographing operation of the electronic camera. 4. The panorama according to claim 1, further comprising an exposure amount control means for controlling an exposure time for the image pickup means or a charge accumulation time in the image pickup means within a time shorter than a rotation time of the predetermined angle. The electronic camera system for photographing or the electronic camera for panoramic photographing according to claim 2. 5. An illumination unit for illuminating a subject according to the rotation of the electronic camera by the rotation unit.
The electronic camera system for panoramic shooting or the electronic camera for panoramic shooting according to any one of 2 and 4.