JPH08211498A - Photographic printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To make a whole device compact by preventing the deterioration of an LCD caused by heat and miniaturizing a light source. CONSTITUTION: An LED array 66 is constituted by arraying plural LEDs of respective colors in a specified arraying order. As to the arraying order and the quantity of the LEDs of respective colors; by arraying the LEDs in a density distribution as shown is (B), the light quantity of respective colors per unit time is made to be nearly the same (R≈G>B). Since the light quantity per the unit time is made the same, lighting time is the same time in the case of standard exposure and is easily controlled. During a preparation period when images corresponding to respective colors are formed on a liquid crystal panel, the role of a black shutter is obtained by extinguishing the LED, so that leaked light to printing paper is prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention sequentially forms an image for each color by using an LCD, and exposes a photosensitive material with light which is emitted from a light source in the order of colors corresponding to the formed image and transmitted through the LCD. The present invention relates to a photographic printing apparatus that obtains a printed image by performing the printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a halogen lamp is used as a light source when a transmission image is printed on a photosensitive material by exposure.
This halogen lamp is one of the widely used light sources because it has a large amount of light and has a long life. Further, since the light amount distribution is relatively flat, it is possible to prevent uneven exposure.

By the way, in recent years, it has been proposed to apply an image formed on a liquid crystal panel as a transmission image.
When an image is formed on this liquid crystal panel, it is a digital image, so it is easy to enlarge or reduce or edit the original image, and it is applied to various image processing systems. Especially in the photographic industry, the production of index prints. Has been applied to. That is, an image for one negative film is read in as a digital image, and each image is reduced to fit one sheet of photographic paper of a predetermined size (size slightly larger than normal L size), and a matrix shape is formed. They are arranged in parallel and exposed at once. The halogen lamp is also applied as a light source of an optical system to which this liquid crystal panel is applied.

[0004]

However, the halogen lamp is easily converted into heat energy, and this heat causes the LCD to deteriorate early. Also,
Since the halogen lamp itself is large, there is a limit to downsizing the device.

In view of the above facts, it is an object of the present invention to obtain a photographic printing apparatus capable of preventing the LCD from being deteriorated by heat and downsizing the light source so that the entire apparatus can be made compact.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an image for each color is sequentially formed using an LCD, and the light is emitted from a light source in the order of colors corresponding to the formed image and transmitted through the LCD. A photographic printing apparatus that obtains a printed image by exposing a light-sensitive material with the above-described light, wherein the light source is composed of LEDs of three colors of R (red), G (green), and B (blue). It is characterized in that a plurality of LEDs are arranged in an array and LEDs of colors corresponding to images of respective colors are sequentially turned on.

According to a second aspect of the invention, the LE of the three colors is used.
It is characterized in that the light amount per unit time for each D is recognized in advance and the number of LEDs of each color is determined so that the standard exposure time of the three colors is substantially constant.

According to a third aspect of the invention, a diffuser having a relatively low degree of diffusion is interposed between the LCD and the LCD.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, between the light source composed of the LEDs and the LCD, the transmittance increases as the concentric circle spreads with the optical axis position of each LED as the minimum transmittance. It is characterized by interposing an ND filter.

[0010]

According to the invention described in claim 1, as the light source, L
By using the ED, the degree of conversion into heat energy can be reduced and deterioration of the liquid crystal panel due to heat can be prevented.

Further, although the light quantity of the LED alone is small, the light quantity is earned by arranging the LEDs in an array.
However, since the LED itself is extremely smaller than the halogen lamp, even if a plurality of LEDs are arranged, they can be arranged in a relatively narrow space, and the overall size of the device can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the unit light amount of each color is different, the unit light amount of each arranged color is recognized in advance, and the standard exposure time of each color is kept substantially constant. By determining the number, the characteristics of the three colors can be made uniform and the overall exposure time can be shortened.

According to the invention described in claim 3, a plurality of L
By arranging the EDs, uneven light amount distribution may occur. Therefore, a diffuser having a relatively low degree of diffusion is interposed between the LED and the liquid crystal panel to flatten the light amount distribution. The reason why the diffuser having a low degree of diffusion is used is that the incident light on the liquid crystal panel is preferably close to parallel light.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the ND filter is interposed together with the diffuser or alone. That is, it is possible to reduce the unevenness of the light amount of the light incident on the liquid crystal panel by using the ND filter having the transmittance that cancels the unevenness of the light amount distribution and becomes flat.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A printer processor 1 as shown in FIG.
In the case of 0, the outside is covered with a casing 12, and a work table 14 protruding from the casing 12 is provided on the printer unit 10A side in the left direction of FIG. A negative carrier 16 on which a photographic film (not shown) is set is placed on the upper surface of the work table 14.

Below the work table 14, the diffusion tube 1 is provided.
7, cut filters 18, 19, 20 and a light source 22 are provided. A halogen lamp is applied to the light source 22.

A printing lens 26 and a black shutter 28 are arranged in the optical section 24 located above the work table 14.

The light rays that have passed through the photographic film pass through the printing lens 26 and are reflected by the reflection mirror 30 (the optical axis of which is approximately 9).
0 degrees) is deflected. A print mask 32 is disposed on the side of the reflection mirror 30.

On the upper surface of the casing 12, there is mounted a paper magazine 38 which accommodates the photographic printing paper 34 wound around the reel 36 in layers.

A plurality of rollers 40 are provided in the casing 12.
Is arranged, and the photographic printing paper 34 is hung on the side of the reflection mirror 30 so that the image on the photographic film is printed.

The image-printed photographic printing paper 34 is conveyed to the color developing tank 42 of the processor section 10B. The color developing tank 42 performs a developing process by immersing the photographic printing paper 34 in a developing solution.

The photographic printing paper 34 that has undergone the development processing is the color developing tank 4
It is conveyed to the bleach-fixing tank 44 adjacent to No. 2. The bleach-fixing tank 44 performs a fixing process by immersing the printing paper 34 in a fixing solution.

The photographic printing paper 34 that has undergone the fixing process is the photographic printing paper 34.
Is conveyed to a plurality of rinse tanks 46 for rinsing by immersing the water in the cleaning water.

The photographic printing paper 34 that has been washed with water is a rinse tank 46.
And is conveyed to the drying section 48 adjacent to. In the drying section 48,
Warm air is applied to the printing paper 34 to perform a drying process.

The photographic printing paper 34, which has been dried, is conveyed to the cutter unit 50 arranged above the drying unit 48. The cutter unit 50 includes a cut mark sensor (not shown) for detecting a cut mark provided on the photographic printing paper 34 and the photographic printing paper 16.
And a cutter (not shown) for cutting the sheet. The photographic paper 34 is cut into image frames and discharged to the outside of the casing 12 of the printer processor 10.

The photographic printing paper 34 cut and discharged is sorted into the sorter section 52 for each photographic film as a finished print.

Here, the printer processor 1 of the present embodiment.
No. 0 is an index printer unit that prints the image of one photographic film on the photographic paper 34 after printing the image of one photographic film on the photographic paper 34 in a matrix. 60 is provided. The index printer unit 60 is provided on the back side (right side in FIG. 1) of the work table 14.

As shown in FIG. 1, on the back side of the negative carrier 16 (right side in FIG. 1), the upper surface of the work table 14 is lowered by one step, and the liquid crystal panel 62 is placed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the liquid crystal panel 62 has a display surface in which a plurality of pixels composed of liquid crystal whose transmittance changes electrically are arranged in a matrix (in this embodiment, about 510,000 pixels are used). 62A) and a substrate 62B provided corresponding to one side of the display surface 62A in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction and provided with wiring for energizing each pixel.
, And the substrate 62B is covered with a frame 64. The liquid crystal panel 60 applied to this embodiment is 8
The transmittance can be changed and held in bits, that is, in 256 gradations, so that not only characters and the like displayed only in white and black, but also so-called pictures and the like can be displayed.

On the other hand, the index printer unit 60 of the present embodiment is provided on the far side (right side in FIG. 1) of the optical system (light source 22, cut filters 18, 19, 20 and diffusion tube 17) used for ordinary printing processing. An LED array 66 as a light source is provided.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the LED array 66 is composed of a plurality of LEDs of each color arranged in a predetermined arrangement order. The arrangement order and the number of LEDs of each color may have various forms depending on the intensity of the light quantity of the LEDs themselves, but when the LEDs currently mass-produced are applied,
By arranging in a density distribution as shown in FIG. 3B, the light amount per unit time of each color can be made substantially the same (R≈G> B). It should be noted that this arrangement and the number are premised on that the same current is passed, and when the light amount of each color is controlled by the current control, the arrangement and the number are not limited to the above.

A reflection mirror 68 tilted by 45 ° is provided above the liquid crystal panel 62, and guides the optical axis L'of the light transmitted through the liquid crystal panel 62 in the direction of the optical axis L of ordinary printing exposure. There is. A movable reflection mirror 70 is arranged in this guide direction. This movable reflection mirror 70 is retracted from the optical axis L as shown by the imaginary line in FIG. 1 in the case of normal exposure, and is inserted on the optical axis L as shown by the solid line in FIG. The optical axis L ′ of the light reflected by 68 is made to coincide with the optical axis L.

In the index print, one image is obtained by sequentially exposing three times for each color. That is, for example, when exposing in the order of RGB, first, the movable reflecting mirror 70 is moved to the position of the solid line in FIG. 1, and an image corresponding to R is formed on the liquid crystal panel 62, and L
Only the R light of the ED array 66 is turned on. Next, an image corresponding to G is formed on the liquid crystal panel 62 and only G light is lit, and then an image corresponding to B is formed on the liquid crystal panel 62 and only B light is lit. As described above, the lighting times are the same for the standard exposure because the amount of light per unit time is made the same, and the control is easy.

Further, an image corresponding to each color is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 6.
During the preparatory period for forming on the second sheet, the LED is turned off so as to serve as a black shutter, so that light leakage to the photographic printing paper 34 is prevented.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below. First,
The normal printing process will be described. Paper magazine 38
The photographic printing paper 36 pulled out from is wound around a roller 40, conveyed to the print mask 32, and positioned at a predetermined position.

On the other hand, the photographic film is a negative carrier 16
And a predetermined image frame is positioned at the mask opening position.

In this state, the halogen lamp, which is the light source 22, is turned on, the positions of the cut filters 18, 19 and 20 are determined, and the black shutter 28 is opened.
The transmission image on the mask opening is reflected by the reflection mirror 30,
The printing paper 36 on the print mask 32 is exposed and printed. Black shutter 2 when a predetermined time has passed
By closing 8, the printing process for one image is completed. The light source 22 may be kept on.

Next, the photographic paper 36 is conveyed by a predetermined amount, the photographic film is frame-fed, and the above steps are repeated, whereby the printing process for one photographic film is completed.

Here, the printer processor 10 of the present embodiment.
Then, an image for one photographic film is stored as a digital image by a scanner or the like, and an index print is formed behind the photographic paper 36 for which the normal printing process has been completed.

The procedure for producing the index print will be described below. First, the black shutter 28 is opened. That is, the index printer unit 60
Since the LED array 68 is applied to the above light source, it is possible to provide a function as a shutter by turning off all of the LED array 68, so that the driving of the black shutter 28 can be omitted.

If the optical axis L'is joined to the optical axis L on the downstream side of the black shutter 22, the index print can be produced regardless of the open / closed state of the black shutter 22.

Next, by moving the movable reflecting mirror 70 from the imaginary line position to the solid line position, the optical axis L from the light source 22 can be blocked and the optical axis L'and the optical axis L can be matched.

In this state, an image corresponding to the first selected color, for example, R is formed on the liquid crystal panel 62, and only the R light of the LED array 68 is turned on for a predetermined time and then turned off.
While the light is turned off, an image corresponding to the second color, for example, the G color is formed on the liquid crystal panel 62, and only the G light of the LED array 66 is turned on for a predetermined time and then turned off. Similarly, an exposure process for the third color, for example, B light is performed.

According to this embodiment, since the LED array 68 is used as the light source of the index print unit 60, the heat energy is emitted less than that of the halogen lamp, and the deterioration of the liquid crystal panel 62 due to the heat can be reduced. Further, since the LED array 68 itself is small,
It is possible to reduce the space for arranging the light source and to make the entire device compact.

Further, since the LED has a good responsiveness to the electric control, it is possible to have the function of the black shutter for turning on and off the LED array 66.

In this embodiment, the LED array 66 is used as the light source of the index print unit 10. However, information (for example, character information such as date, shooting place, message, etc.) or a composite photograph or combination is superimposed on a normal image. It can also be applied as a sub-printer for printing multi-image information such as images.

If the light quantity of the LED can be secured, it may be applied as the light source 22 for normal exposure.

Further, in the present embodiment, the index print unit 60 is arranged on the back side of the work table 14, but the negative carrier 1 on the work table 14 is provided on condition that the LED array 66 is applicable to normal exposure.
The liquid crystal panel 62 is arranged in the vicinity of the mask opening 6 and the negative carrier 16 is made slidable, and the mask opening and the liquid crystal panel 62 are sequentially aligned with the optical axis L.
A single optical system can be used. (First Modification) As shown in FIG. 4, in the first modification, the LED array 68 and the liquid crystal panel 6 of the above-described embodiment are used.
A diffuser 72 is provided between the two.

The diffuser 72 can reduce unevenness in the light amount distribution of each color.

By the way, as the diffuser 72, a diffuser having a smaller diffusivity than that of the diffusing cylinder 17 used in a normal optical system is used. That is, the liquid crystal panel 6
When forming an image through the image formed in No. 2, parallel light is preferable as the light source, so that not only reduction of uneven light amount distribution is considered, but also reduction of image contrast due to excessive diffusion is prevented. It is also necessary to consider what to do. (Second Modification) As shown in FIG. 5, in the second modification, the LED array 68 and the liquid crystal panel 6 of the above embodiment are used.
An ND filter 74 is provided between the two.

The transmittance distribution of the ND filter 74 is shown in FIG. 6, and the LEDs are arranged in a matrix.
It has the property that the transmittance increases concentrically around each optical axis. That is, by providing the LED array 68 with a characteristic contradictory to the light amount distribution, the light amount distribution of the light reaching the liquid crystal panel 62 is flattened as a result.

The light passing through the ND filter 72 is further applied to the diffuser 7 applied in the first modification.
By using 0, flattening of the light amount distribution can be improved.

[0053]

As described above, the photographic printing apparatus according to the present invention has an excellent effect that the deterioration of the LCD due to heat is prevented and the size of the light source is reduced so that the entire apparatus can be made compact. Have.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer processor according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a liquid crystal panel.

FIG. 3A is a plan view showing an LED array state of an LED array, and FIG. 3B is a schematic view showing a density distribution of LEDs of each color.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer processor according to a first modified example (with a diffuser added).

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer processor according to a second modification (ND filter added).

FIG. 6 is a transmittance distribution characteristic diagram of an ND filter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Printer Processor 60 Index Print Unit 62 Liquid Crystal Panel 66 LED Array 72 Diffuser 74 ND Filter

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Ito 798 Miyadai, Kaisei-cho, Ashigarakami-gun, Kanagawa Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A printed image is formed by sequentially forming an image for each color using an LCD and exposing a photosensitive material with light emitted from a light source and transmitted through the LCD in the order of colors corresponding to the formed image. A photographic printing apparatus for obtaining the same according to claim 1, wherein the light source is composed of LEDs of three colors of R (red), G (green) and B (blue), and the LEDs are arrayed in a plurality and arranged for each color. Of the color corresponding to the image of
Photographic printing device characterized in that EDs are sequentially turned on. 2. The number of LEDs of each color is determined so that the amount of light per unit time of each of the three color LEDs is recognized in advance and the standard exposure time of the three colors is substantially constant. Photographic printing apparatus according to 1. 3. A light source comprising the LED and an LCD
The photoprinting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a diffuser having a relatively low degree of diffusion is interposed between and. 4. A light source comprising the LED and an LCD
And an ND having the property that the transmittance increases as the concentric circle spreads with the optical axis position of each LED as the minimum transmittance.
4. The photographic printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a filter is interposed.