Electronic camera

• US 20020089593A1
• Filed: 12/05/2001
• Published: 07/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Inventors: Tabata, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 7,136,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/294
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming

Abstract

The digital camera 1, when a length-direction range expanding button 14 or a breadth-direction range expanding button 15 is operated, changes the length-direction and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges of a solid state image pickup device 40 using an image pickup effective range setting table 41. Due to this, there can be obtained picked-up images with a length-to-breadth ratio changed without rotating the main body of the digital camera 1. Also, since the length-direction and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges are adjusted such that the area of the image pickup effective ranges of the solid state image pickup device 40 can provide a substantially constant value, there can be always obtained an image of good quality.

Claims

1. An electronic camera, comprising:

image record member for recording images, which are formed within length-direction image pickup effective ranges and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges set in a solid state image pickup device disposed in a main body of said electronic camera, into a record medium in a form of electronic data;

image pickup effective range change member for changing the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges in said solid state image pickup device; and

an image pickup effective range setting table having a register of a plurality of records respectively indicating correspondences between the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges, wherein

said image pickup effective range change member includes a length-direction range change button capable of executing an input operation to increase the length-direction image pickup effective ranges, and a breadth-direction range change button capable of executing an input operation to increase the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges; and

said image pickup effective range change member is member which, when said length-direction range change button or said breadth-direction range change button is operated, changes the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges using the image pickup effective range setting table.

2. An electronic camera, comprising:

image record member for recording images, which are formed within length-direction image pickup effective ranges and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges set in a solid state image pickup device disposed in a main body of said electronic camera, into a record medium in a form of electronic data; and

,

image pickup effective range change member for changing the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and said breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges set in said solid state image pickup device;

wherein

said image pickup effective range change member includes a length-direction range change button capable of executing an input operation to increase the length-direction image pickup effective ranges, and a breadth-direction range change button capable of executing an input operation to increase the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges; and

said image pickup effective range change member is member which, when said length-direction range change button or said breadth-direction range change button is operated, changes the length-direction and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges in such a manner that the area of said image pickup effective ranges in said solid state image pickup device is capable to provide a constant value.

3. An electronic camera, comprising:

image record member for recording images, which are formed within length-direction image pickup effective ranges and breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges set in a solid state image pickup device disposed in a main body of said electronic camera, into a record medium in a form of electronic data; and

,

image pickup effective range change member for changing the image pickup area of said images set in said solid state image pickup device, that is, said length-direction image pickup effective ranges and said breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges.

4. The electronic camera as set forth in claim 3, further comprising:

an image pickup effective range setting table having a register of a plurality of records respectively indicating correspondences between the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges, wherein

said image pickup effective range change member is member which, when there is input a change instruction for said length-direction range change button or said breadth-direction range change button, changes the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges using the image pickup effective range setting table.

5. The electronic camera as set forth in claim 3, wherein

said image pickup effective range change member is member which, when there is input a change instruction for said length-direction range change button or said breadth-direction range change button, changes the length-direction image pickup effective ranges and the breadth-direction image pickup effective ranges in such a manner that the area of the image pickup effective ranges in said solid state image pickup device is capable to provide a constant value.