JP2003219341A - Movie still camera and operation control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a movie still camera capable of obtaining a moving picture with a smooth motion even when photographing a still picture during recording of the moving picture. <P>SOLUTION: When a moving picture recording mode is set, an imaging element obtains image data representative of an image Im having 640 pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 pixels in the vertical direction by one frame at a prescribed period. When a shutter release button is depressed during setting of a moving picture recording mode, the imaging element obtains image data representative of a still image Is having 1280 pixels in the horizontal direction and 960 pixels in the vertical direction. The still picture data are compressed and recorded on a memory card. Further, a reduced image Ir having the same size as that of the image Im by one frame configuring the moving picture is generated from the still picture Is and inserted to the position at which the still picture Is is obtained. Data representative of the moving picture to which the reduced image Ir is inserted are compressed and recorded on the memory card. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a movie still camera capable of recording moving image data and still image data, and an operation control method thereof.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION While recording a moving image in a moving image mode,
A movie still camera in which a still image is recorded on a recording medium by pressing a shutter release button has been widely used. Still images can be recorded even during recording of moving images.

In such a movie still camera, if a still image is recorded during the recording of a moving image, the image data of the frame representing the still image is not used for the moving image.
This is because the size of a still image is generally different from the size of an image of one frame forming a moving image. The image of the frame used for the still image is dropped. One frame of a still image will be missing from the video.

Conventionally, for one missing frame, the interpolated image is generated using the frames before and after the missing frame. However, when viewed as a moving image, the motion may be discontinuous, which may cause discomfort.

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to prevent discomfort in the motion of an obtained moving image even when a still image is recorded during recording of the moving image.

The present invention, according to the setting of the moving image mode,
A subject is imaged at a constant cycle, image data representing the subject image is recorded on the first recording medium as moving image data, and the image is obtained in response to a still image recording command given during the moving image mode. In a movie still camera that records the recorded image data as still image data on a second recording medium, the size of the still image represented by the still image data constitutes a moving image represented by the moving image data. Adjusting means for adjusting the data amount of the still image data so that the size is one frame, and still image data of which the data amount is adjusted by the adjusting means, the moving image of the frame when the still image recording command is given. Recording control means for recording as moving image data representing an image on the second recording medium (the first recording medium and the second recording medium may be the same) is provided. And wherein the Rukoto.

The present invention also provides an operation control method suitable for the movie still camera. That is, according to this method, a subject is imaged at a constant cycle according to the setting of the moving image mode, image data representing the image of the subject is recorded as moving image data on the first recording medium, and a still image is recorded during the moving image mode. The size of a still image represented by the still image data in a movie still camera that records the image data obtained by the image pickup as still image data in a second recording medium in response to a command being given. So that the size of one frame forming a moving image represented by the moving image data is adjusted, and the still image data with the adjusted data amount is transferred to the still image recording command. It is recorded on the second recording medium as moving image data representing a moving image of a frame at a given time.

According to the present invention, the data amount of the still image data is adjusted so that the size of the still image becomes the size of one frame image forming the moving image. The still image data whose data amount has been adjusted is recorded on the first recording medium as moving image data representing the moving image of the frame when the still image recording command is given.

Even if a still image recording command is issued during recording of a moving image, the frame of the still image is recorded for the moving image, so that the frame used for the still image does not fall out of the moving image. Since no frame drop occurs, the motion of the moving image becomes smooth. It is possible to prevent the movement from feeling uncomfortable.

The still image recorded on the second recording medium is
It may be one piece or plural pieces.

Exposure / adjustment for adjusting at least one of exposure amount adjustment and focusing control for obtaining the still image based on the moving image data for one frame or a plurality of frames before the still image data is obtained. It is preferable to further include focus adjustment means.

In some cases, exposure amount adjustment and focusing control for obtaining a still image may be performed using the moving image data of the frame before the still image data is obtained. In such a case, exposure amount adjustment, focusing control, etc. are performed using a part of the image of one frame,
The rest of the image data is removed. Since the image of one frame cannot be constructed, that frame will be omitted. The missing pieces are often interpolated using the preceding and succeeding pieces, but when viewed as a moving image, the movement becomes discontinuous.

The adjustment of at least one of the exposure amount adjustment and the focus control for obtaining the still image is not the image data of a part of the image of one frame before the still image data is obtained,
Since moving image data for one frame or a plurality of frames is used and the moving image data for one frame is recorded on the second recording medium for moving images, no frame drop occurs. The motion is smooth when viewed as a movie.

The moving image data used for exposure amount adjustment, focusing control, etc. for obtaining a still image is preferably moving image data of a frame immediately before the still image, but it is not always necessary to use moving image data of the immediately preceding frame. .

During the processing of at least one of the exposure amount adjustment and the focusing control, the subject may be imaged at a cycle earlier than the fixed cycle. In this case, when a subject is imaged at a timing synchronized with a fixed cycle, image data having the size (or larger size) of one frame forming a moving image is obtained, and when the subject is imaged at a timing different from the fixed cycle. Image data having a size smaller than the size of one frame forming a moving image may be obtained.
By recording the image data obtained by capturing an image of a subject at a timing synchronized with a fixed cycle in the first recording medium, it is possible to prevent frame drops in a moving image. Moreover, since the amount of image data obtained by capturing an image of a subject at a timing different from the fixed cycle is small, it is possible to speed up processing such as exposure amount adjustment and focusing control. The exposure amount adjustment, focusing control, and the like are performed using the image data for a plurality of frames obtained in this way.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 schematically shows recording of a moving image and a still image when a still image recording command is given when the moving image recording mode is set in the embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, when the moving image recording mode is set, a fixed period (for example,
A subject is imaged at a 1/60 second cycle), and moving image data representing a moving image composed of images of many frames is obtained. A moving image can be viewed by reproducing the images of a large number of frames obtained in this manner at regular intervals.

When the moving image recording mode is set, the shutter release button is pressed during image pickup of a subject, and a still image recording command is given, the driving method of the image pickup device is changed from moving image to still image. . Still image data representing the still image Is is obtained as indicated by hatching. The image Im of one frame forming the moving image has a relatively low image quality, and has 640 pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 pixels in the vertical direction, for example. Still images have high image quality, for example, 1280 pixels in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction.
It is 960 pixels.

A high-quality still image is extracted from the moving image. Frames can be dropped by extracting the still image.

Still image data representing a still image extracted from a moving image is JPEG (joint photographic e
xperts group) Compressed and recorded on a recording medium such as a memory card.

Further, using the still image extracted from the moving image, the reduced image Ir is generated so as to have the size of the image of one frame forming the moving image.

The generated reduced image Ir is inserted at the position where the extracted still image Is existed.

Moving image data representing a moving image in which a reduced image is inserted is compressed on a moving picture experts group (MPEG) and recorded on a recording medium.

Even if a frame drop occurs by extracting the still image Is from the moving image, the extracted still image Is
Since the reduced image Ir generated from is inserted, a moving image with smooth motion can be obtained. More details will be made clear by the following explanation.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the electrical construction of a digital still camera capable of movie recording according to this embodiment.

The overall operation of the digital still camera is controlled by the CPU 3.

The digital still camera includes a moving picture recording mode switch 1 for setting a moving picture recording mode and a shutter release button 2. Signals indicating settings and the like from these switches are input to the CPU 3. Further, the digital still camera has switches (not shown) for setting various modes such as a still image recording mode and a reproduction mode in addition to the moving image recording mode.

When the moving picture recording mode is set by the moving picture recording mode switch 1, the image pickup device 5 such as a CCD picks up an image of a subject at a constant cycle. This image sensor 5
The drive of the device is controlled by the image pickup device drive circuit 4.
While the moving image recording mode is set, normally, as described above, the image sensor 5 is driven so that one frame outputs a moving image video signal representing an image of 640 pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 pixels in the vertical direction at a constant cycle. It When the shutter release button 2 is pressed while the moving image recording mode is set, the image pickup device outputs a still image video signal representing a still image of 1280 pixels in the horizontal direction and 960 pixels in the vertical direction as described above. 5
Is driven.

The moving image signal output from the image pickup device 5 is amplified by the amplifier circuit 6 and input to the analog / digital conversion circuit 7. The moving image signal is converted into digital moving image data in the analog / digital conversion circuit 7.

The digital moving image data is input to the image signal processing circuit 8 and subjected to predetermined signal processing such as gamma correction and white balance adjustment. The image data output from the image signal processing circuit 8 is input to the display control circuit 15. The display device 16 is controlled by the display control circuit 15, and the moving image captured by the image sensor 5 is displayed.

The moving image data output from the image signal processing circuit 8 is given to the moving image storage area 13 in the memory 12 and sequentially stored. When the moving image recording mode ends, the moving image data is read from the moving image storage area 13 and input to the moving image compression / expansion circuit 9. MPEG compression is performed in the moving picture compression / expansion circuit 9. The compressed moving image data is given to the memory card 17 and recorded.

When the moving image recording mode is set,
When the shutter release button 2 is pressed, one frame of image is output as a moving image video signal representing a moving image of 640 horizontal pixels and 480 vertical pixels, and a still image of 1280 horizontal pixels and 960 vertical pixels is output according to the pressing timing. The driving of the image pickup device 5 is changed so that the still image video signal representing the is output.

The still image video signal output from the image pickup device 5 is also amplified by the amplifier circuit 6 and converted into digital still image data by the analog / digital conversion circuit 7 similarly to the moving image video signal. As with the moving image data, the digital still image data is subjected to predetermined signal processing such as gamma correction and white balance adjustment in the image signal processing circuit 8. The still image data output from the image signal processing circuit 8 is temporarily stored in the still image recording area 14 in the memory 12.

The still image data is read from the still image recording area 14 and input to the still image compression / expansion circuit 11. JPEG compression is performed in the still image compression / expansion circuit 11. The JPEG-compressed still image data is given to the memory card 17 and recorded.

When a still image video signal for one frame is output,
The image sensor 5 is driven by the image sensor drive circuit 4 again so that one frame of image outputs a moving image signal having 640 horizontal pixels and 480 vertical pixels. At this point,
By outputting the still image video signal, it is possible to drop frames corresponding to the still image as described above.

The still image data temporarily stored in the still image recording area 14 of the memory 12 is also input to the resizing processing circuit 10. As described above, the resizing processing circuit 10 converts the still image data representing the still image of 1280 pixels in the horizontal direction and 960 pixels in the vertical direction into the horizontal direction 640 that forms the moving image.
It is for generating moving image data representing an image of one frame of 480 pixels (from the still image Is described above to the reduced image Ir.
Process to generate).

The data representing the reduced image generated by the resizing processing circuit 10 is given to the moving image recording area 13 of the memory 12 and the insertion processing is executed at the place where the frame drop occurs as described above. As described above, when the shutter release button 2 is pressed while the moving image recording mode is set, moving image data representing a moving image in which a reduced image is inserted is given to the moving image compression / expansion circuit 9, MPEG compression will be performed. The MPEG-compressed moving image data is given to the memory card 17 and recorded in the same manner as when the shutter release button 2 is not pressed in the moving image recording mode.

The compressed moving image data and the compressed still image data recorded on the memory card 17 are read out by setting the reproduction mode by the reproduction mode switch (not shown). The compressed moving image data is expanded in the moving image compression / expansion circuit 9, and the compressed still image data is expanded in the still image compression / expansion circuit 11, so that the expanded moving image data and the still image data are expanded. Is obtained. By providing the obtained moving image data to the display control circuit 15, a moving image is displayed on the display screen of the display device 16, and still image data is displayed on the display control circuit.
By being given to 15, the still image is displayed on the display screen of the display device 16.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the digital still camera when the moving image recording mode is set.

The image pickup device 5 picks up an image of a subject at a constant cycle (step 21), and the image pickup device 5 outputs a moving image signal. When the shutter release button 2 is pressed (YES in step 22), the shutter release button 2 is driven to output a still image signal. When a still image signal is output,
The video signal is output again (step
twenty three). The moving image video signal and the still image video signal are each converted into digital image data.

Still image data is extracted from the image data (moving image data and still image data) obtained in a constant cycle (step 24). Data representing a reduced image is generated from the extracted still image data (step 2
Five). Data representing the reduced image is recorded in the moving image recording area 13 so that the reduced image is inserted in the place where the still image was present in the moving image (step 26).

There is no depression of the shutter release button 2 (NO in step 22), and the moving image recording mode switch 1
When the video recording is stopped by (YES in step 27
S), the moving image data and the still image data are recorded in the memory card 17 (step 27).

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment, and schematically shows recording of moving images and still images. 4 is shown in FIG.
Corresponding to.

In the process shown in FIG. 4, when the shutter release button 2 is pressed while the moving image recording mode is set, still image data representing a still image of 1280 pixels in the horizontal direction and 960 pixels in the vertical direction is displayed. The same processing as that described above is obtained, but using still image data, the data representing one frame before the still image (one frame forming a moving image of 640 pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 pixels in the horizontal direction) is used. Automatic exposure adjustment and automatic focusing control processing of the image Is are performed. An image used for automatic exposure adjustment and automatic focusing control processing of the still image Is will be referred to as an AE / AF image Ia.

In this case, the size of the AE / AF image Ia is the same as the size of the image Im of one frame forming the moving image. It is used not only for automatic exposure adjustment (adjustment of shutter time, aperture value, etc.) and automatic focusing control (positioning of an imaging lens (not shown)) of the still image Is, but also as an image forming a moving image. Therefore, the AE / AF image I
Even if the automatic exposure adjustment and the automatic focusing control of the still image Is are performed using a, it is possible to prevent the motion of the obtained moving image from becoming discontinuous. For the still image Is, the reduced image Ir is generated in the same manner as described above, and the generated reduced image Ir is inserted into the moving image as one frame forming the moving image.

When automatic exposure adjustment and automatic focusing control are performed using the AE / AF image Ia, a two-step stroke type shutter release button will be used. In response to the pressing in the first step, automatic exposure adjustment and automatic focusing control are performed using the data representing the AE / AF image Ia obtained based on the video signal output from the image sensor 5. The image sensor 5 is driven so as to output a still image video signal in response to the second-step depression of the shutter release button. It goes without saying that it does not have to be a two-stroke type.

The above-mentioned automatic exposure adjustment and automatic focusing control are performed in the image signal processing circuit 8 using the data representing the AE / AF image Ia. Also, one of the processes of the automatic exposure adjustment and the automatic focusing control may be performed instead of both processes. Further, the AE / AF image Ia does not necessarily have to be the frame immediately before the still image Is, and may be a plurality of frames.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the still image Is is one frame, but a plurality of still images Is may be obtained like a continuous digital still camera.

During the processing of the automatic exposure amount adjustment and the automatic focusing control, the subject may be imaged at a cycle earlier than the moving picture imaging cycle. In this case, when a subject is imaged at a timing synchronized with the moving image capturing cycle, the image data (the image representing the AE / AF image Ia described above) having the size (or size) of one frame forming a moving image is formed. Data), and image data having a size smaller than the size of one frame constituting a moving image may be obtained when a subject is imaged at a timing different from the moving image capturing cycle. By recording in the memory card 17 image data obtained by capturing an image of a subject at a timing that is synchronized with the image capturing cycle of a moving image, it is possible to prevent dropping of frames in a moving image. In addition, since the amount of image data obtained by capturing an image of a subject at a timing different from the moving image capturing cycle is small, exposure amount adjustment,
Processing such as focusing control can be speeded up. Exposure amount adjustment, focusing control, and the like are performed using the image data for a plurality of frames thus obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 schematically shows a recording state when a shutter release button is pressed in a moving image recording mode.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a digital still camera.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in a moving image recording mode.

FIG. 4 schematically shows a recording state when a shutter release button is pressed in a moving image recording mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Video recording mode switch 2 Shutter release button 3 CPU 5 Image sensor 8 Image signal processing circuit 9 Video compression / decompression circuit 10 Resize processing circuit 11 Still image compression / decompression circuit 12 memory 13 Video recording area 14 Still image recording area

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A still image recording command is issued during a moving image mode by capturing an image of a subject at a fixed cycle according to the setting of the moving image mode, recording image data representing the image of the object as moving image data on a first recording medium. In the movie still camera, which records the image data obtained by the above-mentioned imaging as still image data on the second recording medium in response to
Adjusting means for adjusting the data amount of the still image data so that the size of the still image represented by the still image data becomes the size of one frame forming the moving image represented by the moving image data; Recording control means for recording still image data whose data amount has been adjusted by the adjusting means on the first recording medium as moving image data representing a moving image of a frame when the still image recording command is given. Movie still camera. 2. At least one of exposure amount adjustment and focusing control for obtaining the still image is performed based on moving image data for one frame or a plurality of frames before the still image data is obtained. The movie still camera according to claim 1, further comprising exposure / focus adjusting means. 3. A still image recording command is issued during the moving image mode by capturing an image of a subject at a constant cycle according to the setting of the moving image mode, recording image data representing the image of the object as moving image data on a first recording medium. In the movie still camera, which records the image data obtained by the above-mentioned imaging as still image data on the second recording medium in response to
The data amount of the still image data is adjusted so that the size of the still image represented by the still image data becomes the size of one frame forming the moving image represented by the moving image data. An operation control method for a movie still camera, wherein recorded still image data is recorded on the second recording medium as moving image data representing a moving image of a frame when the still image recording command is given.