Image capturing apparatus, control method, program, and recording medium therefor

• US 10,447,943 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2018
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Hinako
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hasan, Syed Y
• Application Number:
  US15/891,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20180234610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: 3482231, 348362
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 7/00 Control of exposure by setting shutters, diaphragms or filters, separately or conjointly control of exposure in television cameras by means of circuitry influencing the optical part of the camera H04N23/75
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/745 Detection of flicker frequency or suppression of flicker wherein the flicker is caused by illumination, e.g. due to fluorescent tube illumination or pulsed LED illumination
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2625 for obtaining an image which is composed of images from a temporal image sequence, e.g. for a stroboscopic effect sequence generated by event triggered capturing H04N7/188
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate

Abstract

An image capturing apparatus includes a setting unit configured to set an exposure for image capturing by an image capturing unit, wherein in a mode for acquiring a plurality of images for a moving image by performing intermittent image capturing using the image capturing unit, the setting unit smooths data on a brightness corresponding to a plurality of image capturing operations in the intermittent image capturing and sets an exposure for one image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing according to the smoothed data, and an acquisition unit configured to acquire first information including at least one of an image capture interval for the intermittent image capturing, a frame rate of the moving image, and shake information during image capturing of a subject. The setting unit determines a degree of the smoothing based on the first information acquired by the acquisition unit.

Claims

1. An image capturing apparatus comprising:

an image sensor that captures an image of a subject;

one or more processors;

one or more non-transitory memories storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the image capturing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

setting an exposure for image capturing by the image sensor, wherein in a mode for acquiring a plurality of images for a time-lapse moving image by performing intermittent image capturing using the image sensor at preliminarily set predetermined image capture intervals, smoothing data on a brightness corresponding to a plurality of image capturing operations in the intermittent image capturing and setting an exposure for one image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing according to the smoothed data; and

acquiring first information including at least one of an image capture interval for the intermittent image capturing, a frame rate of the moving image, and shake information during image capturing of the subject,

wherein, during a period between a first image capturing operation and a second image capturing operation subsequent to the first image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing the setting includes determining a degree of the smoothing for the second image capturing operation based on the first information acquired by the acquiring, and the data on a brightness corresponding to the plurality of image capturing operations including the first image capturing operation.

2. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the data on the brightness indicates photometric values obtained for each of the plurality of image capturing operations, and

wherein the setting includes changing the degree of the smoothing by changing, according to the first information, the number of image capturing operations corresponding to the photometric values to be smoothed.

3. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the data on the brightness indicates information about exposures each corresponding to a different one of the plurality of image capturing operations, and

wherein the setting includes changing the degree of the smoothing by changing, according to the first information, the number of image capturing operations corresponding to the information about the exposures to be smoothed.

4. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting includes controlling, based on the first information acquired by the acquiring, the degree of the smoothing in such a manner that the degree of the smoothing is set larger in a case of a second interval in comparison with a case of a first interval, the first and second intervals each having an image capturing interval for continuous image capturing operations in the intermittent image capturing, the image capturing interval of the second interval being shorter than the image capturing interval of a first interval,.

5. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting includes controlling, based on the first information acquired by the acquiring, the degree of the smoothing in such a manner that the degree of the smoothing is set smaller in a case where the frame rate of the time-lapse moving image is a second rate in comparison with a case where the frame rate of the moving image is a first rate, the second rate being lower than the first rate.

6. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting includes controlling, based on the acquired first information, the degree of the smoothing in such a manner that the degree of the smoothing is set smaller in a case where a predetermined amount or more of image capturing apparatus shake occurs during image capturing of the subject in comparison with a case where an amount of image capturing apparatus shake less than the predetermined amount occurs during image capturing of the subject.

7. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise generating the time-lapse moving image using a plurality of images acquired in the mode.

8. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise controlling the one image capturing operation by the image sensor, according to an exposure set by the setting unit.

9. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise recording a plurality of images on a recording medium, the plurality of images being obtained by the intermittent image capturing in the mode.

10. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving an instruction for a user to arbitrarily set an image capture interval for the intermittent image capturing in the mode.

11. A control method for an image capturing apparatus including an image sensor configured to capture an image of a subject, the control method comprising:

setting an exposure for image capturing by the image sensor, and in a mode for acquiring a plurality of images for a time-lapse moving image by performing intermittent image capturing using the image sensor at preliminarily set predetermined image capture intervals, smoothing data on a brightness corresponding to a plurality of image capturing operations in the intermittent image capturing, and setting an exposure for one image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing according to the smoothed data; and

acquiring first information including at least one of an image capture interval for the intermittent image capturing, a frame rate of the moving image, and shake information during image capturing of the subject,

wherein, during a period between a first image capturing operation and a second image capturing operation subsequent to the first image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing, the setting includes determining a degree of the smoothing for the second image capturing operation based on the first information acquired in the acquiring, and the data on a brightness corresponding to the plurality of image capturing operations including the first image capturing operation.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-readable program for causing a computer to execute a control method for an image capturing apparatus including an image sensor configured to capture an image of a subject, the control method comprising:

setting an exposure for image capturing by the image sensor, and in a mode for acquiring a plurality of images for a time-lapse moving image by performing intermittent image capturing using the image sensor at preliminarily set predetermined image capture intervals, smoothing data on a brightness corresponding to a plurality of image capturing operations in the intermittent image capturing, and setting an exposure for one image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing according to the smoothed data; and

acquiring first information including at least one of an image capture interval for the intermittent image capturing, a frame rate of the moving image, and shake information during image capturing of the subject,

wherein, during a period between a first image capturing operation and a second image capturing operation subsequent to the first image capturing operation in the intermittent image capturing, the setting includes determining a degree of the smoothing for the second image capturing operation based on the first information acquired in the acquiring, and the data on a brightness corresponding to the plurality of image capturing operations including the first image capturing operation.