JPH10191237A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively use a recording medium by switching a system to a normal picture quality mode when the number of photographing possible frames becomes zero or a small number at the time of selecting a high picture quality mode and switching a display and informing a user of recording when recording is possible. SOLUTION: A system controller 4 checks the idle capacity of a recording medium 8 at every photographing, switches a luminescent color with remaining capacity and displays it on a display part 9. At that time, a frame number calculation means 4a checks the remaining quantity of the recording medium 8. When photographing is possible at a fine or a normal mode which is set by an operation part, 5, the system controller 4 holds the luminescent color of the display part 9 to be regular green. When remaining quantity is less at the fine mode but photographing is possible at the normal mode, a luminescent color switching means 4b switches the display part 9 into yellow. When photographing is not possible at both modes, it is switched to red. Thus, a remaining quantity situation is reported to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic camera which digitally processes a video signal from an image sensor and records the digital signal on a recording medium such as a semiconductor memory, and more particularly to a recording medium capacity management.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in an electronic camera having two types of recording modes, normal and high image quality (fine), a technique for managing the capacity of a recording medium in each recording mode has been proposed.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, since the capacity of the recording medium is managed in each recording mode, a visual display that efficiently uses the capacity of the determined recording medium cannot be performed. There is a problem.

For example, one unit per frame in the normal mode and three units per frame in the fine mode are required. When recording is performed in the fine mode on a 10-unit recording medium, three frames (9 units) are recorded. Is possible. At this time, the recording medium has one unit space, but the user cannot visually recognize that one frame can be recorded in the normal mode unless the recording mode is switched.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and a recording medium for recording image data and an image quality mode for recording on the recording medium include at least a normal image quality. Image quality mode selecting means for selecting two types of modes of high image quality and recording on the recording medium, and frame number calculating means for calculating the number of photographable frames that can be recorded on the recording medium in the selected image quality mode, An electronic camera comprising: a display unit that displays the calculated number of frames; and a luminescent color switching unit that switches a luminescent color of the display unit when the number of frames that can be shot in each of the image quality modes is 0 or a small number. The high image quality mode is selected by the image quality mode selecting means, and the number of photographable frames is 0.
Alternatively, when the number of images becomes small, if the normal image quality mode is selected and the image can be recorded on the recording medium, the emission color of the display means is switched to the first emission color to notify the user that shooting is possible.

If the high quality mode is selected by the image quality mode selecting means and the number of frames that can be photographed becomes 0 or a small number, the image cannot be recorded on the recording medium even if the normal image quality mode is selected. May switch a light emission color of the display means to a second light emission color to notify a user that shooting is not possible.

Further, the normal image quality mode is selected by the image quality mode selecting means, and the number of photographable frames is zero.
Alternatively, when the number becomes small, the light emission color of the display means may be switched to the second light emission color to notify the user that shooting is not possible.

Thus, even when the number of frames that can be photographed in the fine mode becomes 0, an operation that visually informs the user when there is a remaining recording medium that can be photographed in the normal mode can be performed. Thus, the user can visually know the remaining amount of the recording medium, and can effectively use the medium capacity.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a camera unit, 2 denotes an A / D converter for converting an analog signal from the camera unit 1 into a digital signal, and 3 denotes a data processing unit. Memory, 4
Is a frame number calculating means 4a for calculating the number of photographable frames of the recording medium in addition to predetermined image processing, and a light emitting color switching means 4b for switching a light emitting color of a display unit 9 described later when the number of photographable frames is 0 or a small number. System controller with 5
An eye operation unit that performs an operation of switching between a normal mode and a fine mode. Reference numeral 6 denotes a D / A converter, 7 denotes an output circuit, 8 denotes a recording medium, and 9 denotes a display unit such as an LCD.
Is mounted on the upper surface of the camera unit 1 shown in FIG.

Next, the operation in such a configuration will be described. In the electronic camera according to the present embodiment, a subject image is input to the camera unit 1 through a lens. The subject image converted to the electric signal is input to the A / D converter 2 and converted from an analog signal to a digital signal. Thereafter, it is temporarily stored in the memory 3. If the stored image signal is switched to the normal mode by the operation unit 5 by the system controller 4, the thinning process is performed for each pixel. The normal mode at this time is the mode selected by the operation unit 5 as described above. The image data on which the thinning process has been performed is stored in the recording medium 8. The process up to this point is from shooting to recording. To reproduce the image data, the image data stored in the recording medium 8 is transferred to the memory 3.
Since the transferred image data has been thinned out, the system controller 4 performs image display processing.
This image data is input to the D / A converter 6 and converted from a digital signal to an analog signal. Thereafter, the image is output to the output circuit 7 and an image is displayed on a display or the like (not shown).

On the other hand, the system controller 4 checks the free space in the recording medium 8 for each photographing, and displays the result on the display unit 9. At this time, the remaining capacity of the recording medium 8 is visually displayed on the display unit 9 by switching the emission color. FIG. 3 shows an example.
The remaining amount of the recording medium 8 is checked by the frame number calculating means 4a, and when the photographing is possible in both the fine mode and the normal mode set by the operation unit 5, the system controller 4 is operated as shown in FIG. Keeps the light emission color of the display unit 9 in a normal green color without switching. Next, when there is no remaining amount in the fine mode, but in the normal mode shooting is possible, the emission color of the display unit 9 is switched to yellow by the emission color switching means 4b. Thus, it is possible to visually notify the user that shooting in the normal mode is possible. When the normal mode is selected and the number of frames becomes 0 and the number-of-frames calculating means 4a determines that shooting is not possible, the color is switched to red to notify the user that shooting is not possible.

In the present invention, the emission color is switched by judging whether or not the number of frames becomes 0 and the photographing is possible. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Alternatively, the light emission color may be switched when the number reaches the preset number.

[0013]

The present invention has two image quality modes. Even if there is no recordable capacity in one mode, if there is a recordable capacity in another mode, the remaining capacity is changed to three colors without switching the mode. The user can be visually informed by using the display device, so that the recording medium can be effectively used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view of an electronic camera.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display on a display unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Camera unit 2 A / D converter 3 Memory 4 System controller 5 Key operation part 6 D / A converter 7 Output circuit 8 Recording medium 9 Display part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium for recording image data, an image quality mode selecting means for selecting at least two types of normal image quality and high image quality as image quality modes for recording on the recording medium, and recording on the recording medium, Frame number calculating means for calculating the number of frames that can be shot on the recording medium in the selected image quality mode; display means for displaying the calculated frame number;
Or, in an electronic camera provided with a light emission color switching means for switching the light emission color of the display means in a case of a small number, the image quality mode selection means selects the high image quality mode, and the number of photographable frames becomes zero or a small number. In this case, when the normal image quality mode is selected and the recording can be performed on the recording medium, the emission color of the display means is switched to the first emission color to notify a user of shooting possible. 2. When a high image quality mode is selected by said image quality mode selecting means and the number of frames that can be photographed becomes 0 or a small number, and recording is not possible on said recording medium even when a normal image quality mode is selected. Sets the emission color of the display means to the second
2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the electronic camera is switched to the light emission color to notify a user that shooting is not possible. 3. When the normal image quality mode is selected by the image quality mode selecting means and the number of photographable frames becomes 0 or a small number, the emission color of the display means is switched to the second emission color. 2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein a user is notified that shooting is impossible.