JPH11112859A - Digital electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To normally enable optimum photographing to be executed in spite of lens exchange by executing a correction processing corresponding to an optical characteristic intrinsic to an exchange lens. SOLUTION: The image of a subject formed by the exchange lens 1 is converted into an electric signal by an image pickup element 2 such as CCD, etc. A lens characteristic code reading circuit 9 reads a lens characteristic code 8 provided inside the exchange lens 1 and the optical characteristic intrinsic to the exchange lens 1 is stored in a lens characteristic storage circuit 10. A correcting circuit 3 inputs the electric signal of the subject outputted from the image pickup element 2 and correction in accordance with the optical characteristic intrinsic to the exchange lens 1 is executed. A signal processing circuit 4 generates image information by the electric signal which is corrected by the correcting circuit 3 and outputs it to a compression extending circuit 5. The compression extending circuit 5 compresses data and compressed image information is written in an image memory 11 in an external storage medium. Thus, the image is photographed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital electronic camera, and more particularly to a digital electronic camera capable of performing correction according to the optical characteristics of a mounted interchangeable lens.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, digital electronic cameras for recording a photographed image in a semiconductor memory device have been marketed by various companies. The optical lenses provided in these digital electronic cameras have a smaller amount of light at the periphery of the lens than at the center, and have errors such as spherical aberration, coma, and chromatic aberration. These characteristics of the optical lens cause deterioration in the quality of a captured image. For this reason, various techniques have been proposed in which a correction process is performed in accordance with the characteristics of an optical lens, and recording is performed after image quality deterioration is avoided.

[0003]

Here, the correction processing according to the characteristics of the conventional optical lens is limited to a digital camera in which the lens is fixed to the camera body, and is applied to a digital electronic camera in which an interchangeable lens is mounted. There was a problem that it could not cope.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital electronic camera in which an interchangeable lens is mounted, capable of performing a correction process according to the inherent optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image pickup means for converting a subject image into an electric signal by a solid-state image pickup device, and an interchangeable lens having a lens characteristic code representing a unique optical characteristic. A lens characteristic code reading circuit that reads the lens characteristic code, a lens characteristic storage circuit that stores the lens characteristic code, a correction circuit that corrects the input electric signal according to the lens characteristic code, and the correction circuit Recording means for processing the electric signal corrected by the above and recording the same as image information on a recording medium.

The lens characteristic code is a lens code for distinguishing various interchangeable lenses, and the lens characteristic code reading circuit reads the lens code and searches for and reads a lens characteristic code corresponding to the lens code. The digital electronic camera.

[0007] According to the above configuration, in a digital electronic camera to which an interchangeable lens is mounted, it is possible to always perform optimal correction according to the inherent optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a digital electronic camera according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital electronic camera according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is an interchangeable lens, 2 is an image sensor such as a CCD, 3 is a correction circuit for performing correction according to the optical characteristics of the lens, 4 is a signal processing circuit for creating image information, and 5 is a circuit for compressing and compressing image information. A compression / decompression circuit for decompression, 6 a microcomputer for system management,
Reference numeral 7 denotes an operation switch operated by a user, 8 denotes a lens characteristic code representing the intrinsic optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens, 9 denotes a lens characteristic code reading circuit for reading the lens characteristic code, 10
Denotes a lens characteristic storage circuit for storing a lens characteristic code;
Reference numeral 1 denotes an image memory for storing a plurality of pieces of image information in an external storage medium.

The specific operation of the digital electronic camera according to the present invention configured as described above when capturing an image will be described below. When capturing an image, a subject formed by the interchangeable lens 1 is converted into an electric signal by an image pickup device 2 such as a CCD. The lens characteristic code reading circuit 9 reads the lens characteristic code 8 provided in the interchangeable lens 1 and records the unique optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens 1 in the lens characteristic storage circuit 10. The correction circuit 3 receives the electric signal of the subject output from the image sensor 2 and performs correction according to the intrinsic optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens 1. The signal processing circuit 4 creates image information from the electric signal corrected by the correction circuit 3 and outputs the image information to the compression / expansion circuit 5. The compression / expansion circuit 5 performs data compression,
The compressed image information is stored in an image memory 11 in an external storage medium.
Is written to. Image capturing is performed as described above.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 8 'denotes a lens code representing the intrinsic optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens 1, and 9' denotes a lens code reading circuit for reading the lens code. The difference between the lens characteristic code and the lens code is as follows. An enormous amount of information is required to accurately represent lens characteristics. Here, the information that directly indicates the lens characteristics is called a lens characteristic code. However, since the lens characteristic code has a large amount of information, there is a disadvantage that it takes time to read. Therefore, information only for distinguishing various interchangeable lenses is called a lens code.

In FIG. 2, a lens code reading circuit 9 '
Reads the lens code 8 ', retrieves the lens characteristic code corresponding to the lens code, reads the lens characteristic code corresponding to the lens code 8', and stores it in the lens characteristic storage circuit 10. In this way, the time required for reading is reduced. The description of the subsequent operation is the same as that of FIG.

[0012]

As described above, the digital electronic camera of the present invention performs correction processing according to the intrinsic optical characteristics of the interchangeable lens, so that optimal photographing is always possible even when the lens is exchanged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 interchangeable lens 2 CCD 3 correction circuit 4 signal processing circuit 5 compression / expansion circuit 6 microcomputer 7 operation switch 8 lens characteristic code 9 lens characteristic code reading circuit 10 lens characteristic storage circuit 11 image memory 8 'lens code 9' lens code reading circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] An imaging unit for converting a subject image into an electric signal by a solid-state imaging device; an interchangeable lens having a lens characteristic code representing a unique optical characteristic; a lens characteristic code reading circuit for reading the lens characteristic code; A lens characteristic storage circuit that stores a lens characteristic code, a correction circuit that corrects the input electric signal according to the lens characteristic code, and a recording medium that processes the electric signal corrected by the correction circuit and obtains image information as image information A digital electronic camera, comprising: a recording unit that records data in a digital camera. 2. The lens characteristic code is a lens code for distinguishing between various interchangeable lenses, and the lens characteristic code reading circuit reads the lens code and searches for and reads a lens characteristic code corresponding to the lens code. The digital electronic camera according to claim 1.