Camera

• US 20050270369A1
• Filed: 08/04/2005
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OM Digital Solutions Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Nonaka, Osamu
• Granted Patent: US 7,738,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera

Abstract

A camera comprises a monitor which allows a composition of a subject to be confirmed, a backlight which illuminates at least one region on the monitor, an image pickup device and a distance measuring unit for detecting an image condition of the subject, and a backlight control unit which changes the region to be illuminated by the backlight, in accordance with a detection result from the image pickup device and the distance measuring unit.

Claims

1. A camera comprising:

a monitor which allows a composition of a subject to be confirmed;

an illuminating unit which illuminates at least one region on the monitor;

a subject condition detecting unit which detects an image condition of the subject; and

a control unit which changes the region to be illuminated by the illuminating unit, in accordance with the image condition of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting unit.

2. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the control unit detects a main subject in accordance with the image condition of the subject detected by the detecting unit and increases illumination intensity of the illuminating unit for illuminating the region where the main subject is detected.

3. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the control unit reduces the illumination intensity of the illuminating unit illuminating a region darker than a predetermined brightness.

4. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the detecting unit includes plural sets of sensor arrays for monitoring the region on the monitor and detects a main subject by detecting a pattern of person from an image signal whose image is formed on the plural sets of sensor arrays.

5. A camera comprising:

monitoring means for allowing a composition of a subject to be confirmed;

illuminating means for illuminating at least one region on the monitoring means;

subject condition detecting means for detecting an image condition of the subject; and

control means for changing the region to be illuminated by the illuminating means, in accordance with the image condition of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting means.

6. A camera comprising:

a monitor which allows a composition of a subject to be confirmed;

an illuminating unit which illuminates at least one region on the monitor;

a subject condition detecting unit which detects a distance distribution of the subject; and

a control unit which changes the region to be illuminated by the illuminating unit, in accordance with the distance distribution detected by the subject condition detecting unit.

7. The camera according to claim 6, wherein the control unit detects a main subject in accordance with the distance distribution of the subject detected by the detecting unit and increases illumination intensity of the illuminating unit for illuminating the region where the main subject is detected.

8. The camera according to claim 6, wherein the control unit reduces the illumination intensity of the illuminating unit illuminating a region section darker than a predetermined brightness.

9. The camera according to claim 6, wherein the detecting unit includes plural sets of sensor arrays for monitoring the region on the monitor and detects a main subject by detecting a pattern of person from an image signal whose image is formed on the plural sets of sensor arrays.

10. A camera comprising:

monitoring means for allowing a composition of a subject to be confirmed;

illuminating means for illuminating at least one region on the monitoring means;

subject condition detecting means for detecting a distance distribution of the subject; and

control means for changing the region to be illuminated by the illuminating means, in accordance with the distance distribution of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting means.

11. A camera comprising:

a monitor which has a function of emitting light for each of pixels, and which allows a composition of a subject to be confirmed at photographing time;

a subject condition detecting unit which detects an image condition of the subject; and

a light-emission intensity controlling unit which controls a light-emission intensity for each of the pixels of the monitor, in accordance with the image condition of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting unit.

12. The camera according to claim 11, wherein the monitor includes an organic EL device.

13. A camera comprising:

monitoring means for having a function of emitting light for each of pixels, for allowing a composition of a subject to be confirmed at photographing time;

subject condition detecting means for detecting an image condition of the subject; and

light-emission intensity controlling means for controlling a light-emission intensity for each of the pixels of the monitoring means, in accordance with the image condition of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting means.

14. A camera comprising:

a monitor which has a function of emitting light for each of pixels, and which allows a composition of a subject to be confirmed at photographing time;

a subject condition detecting unit which detects a distance distribution of the subject; and

a light-emission intensity controlling unit which controls a light-emission intensity for each of the pixels of the monitor, in accordance with the distance distribution of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting unit.

15. The camera according to claim 14, wherein the monitor includes an organic EL device.

16. A camera comprising:

monitoring means for having a function of emitting light for each of pixels, and for allowing a composition of a subject to be confirmed at photographing time;

subject condition detecting means for detecting a distance distribution condition of the subject; and

light-emission intensity controlling means for controlling a light-emission intensity for each of the pixels of the monitoring means, in accordance with the distance distribution of the subject detected by the subject condition detecting means.

17. A camera comprising:

a monitor which allows a composition of a subject to be confirmed;

a calculating unit which calculates a rate of an area of the subject in the monitor; and

a limiting unit which limits a region on the monitor where an image is displayed, in accordance with the rate of the area of the subject calculated by the calculating unit.

18. A camera comprising:

a monitor means for allowing a composition of a subject to be confirmed;

a calculating means for calculating a rate of an area of the subject in the monitor means; and

a limiting means for limiting a region on the monitor means where an image is displayed, in accordance with the rate of the area of the subject calculated by the calculating means.

19. A camera comprising:

an image pickup unit for photographing an image of a subject;

a monitor which allows a region photographed by the image pickup unit to be visually recognized;

a compressing unit which compresses data of the image photographed by the image pickup unit; and

a limiting unit which limits the region on the monitor where the image is displayed if a compression rate of the data compressed by the compressing unit is great.

20. A camera comprising:

an image pickup means for photographing an image of a subject;

a monitor means for allowing a region photographed by the image pickup means to be visually recognized;

a compressing means for compressing data of the image photographed by the image pickup means; and

a limiting means for limiting the region on the monitor means where the image is displayed if a compression rate of the data compressed by the compressing means is great.

21. A camera comprising:

a photographing lens;

a distance measuring unit which measures distance at an angle of view of the photographing lens;

a main subject detecting unit which detects a position of a main subject from a distance measuring result of the distance measuring unit;

a monitor which displays an image obtained via the photographing lens;

a selecting unit which selects a specific region in accordance with the position of the main subject existing in the image displayed by the monitor;

an illuminating unit which has a plurality of light sources to illuminate at least one of regions on the monitor

an illumination control unit which illuminates the specific region selected by the selecting unit by turning on the light source, of the plurality of light sources, which corresponds to the region selected by the selecting unit.

22. A camera comprising:

a photographing lens;

a distance measuring means for distance measuring at an angle of view of the photographing lens;

a main subject detecting means for detecting a position of a main subject from a distance measuring result of the distance measuring means;

a monitor means for displaying an image obtained via the photographing lens;

a selecting means for selecting a specific region in accordance with the position of the main subject existing in the image displayed by the monitor means;

an illuminating means having a plurality of light sources to illuminate at least one of regions on the monitor; and

an illumination control means for illuminating the specific region selected by the selecting means by turning on the light source, of the plurality of light sources, which corresponds to the region selected by the selecting means.