IMAGING APPARATUS

• US 20070296832A1
• Filed: 01/24/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Ota, Masataka, Fujimoto, Masahiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,045,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/231.99
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/531 being rotatable or detachable
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• 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 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/84 using optical recording H04N5/80, H04N5/89, H04N5/91 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

An imaging apparatus, comprising: a first recording module, which has a first initialization time from initialization to coming into a recordable condition; a second recording module which has a second initialization time from initialization to coming into a recordable condition, being longer than the first initialization time; a mode switching module, which is configure to switch over a power OFF mode, a mode for recording into the first recording module, and a mode for recording into the second recording module, wherein the mode exchange switch, which is configured to exchange the mode in an order from the power OFF mode to the mode for recording into the first recording module, and to the mode for recording into the second recording module, whereby shortening an apparent initializations time of the recording module having a long initialization time, while using a high-speed initialization characteristic of the recording module having a short initialization time effectively, thereby obtaining an improvement on the operability for a user.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus, comprising:

a first recording module, which has a first initialization time from initialization to coming into a recordable condition;

a second recording module which has a second initialization time from initialization to coming into a recordable condition, being longer than the first initialization time;

a mode switching module, which is configure to switch over a power OFF mode, a mode for recording into said first recording module, and a mode for recording into said second recording module, wherein

said mode exchange switch, which is configured to exchange the mode in an order from said power OFF mode to said mode for recording into said first recording module, and to said mode for recording into said second recording module.

2. The imaging apparatus, as described in the claim 1, wherein said mode exchange switch is made of a rotation-type switch, and it selects from said power OFF mode to said mode for recording into said first recording module, and to said mode for recording into said second recording module, in an order of rotation thereof.

3. The imaging apparatus, as described in the claim 1, wherein

said first recording module is a hard disk recording apparatus;

and

said second recording module is an optical disk recording apparatus.

4. The imaging apparatus, as described in the claim 1, further comprising:

a photographing module, which is configured to photograph a picture, wherein

said first recording module and said second recording module record the picture photographed by said photographing module.

5. The imaging apparatus, as described in the claim 1, wherein said first recording module and said second recording module are initialized when the recording mode is set to said first recording module.

6. The imaging apparatus, as described in the claim 1, wherein

said initialization is conducted when the mode is exchanged by means of said mode exchange switch from said power OFF mode to said mode for recording into said first recording module, or to said mode for recording into said second recording module, and

said recordable condition is when rotation of a recording medium of said first recording module or said second recording module is stabilized and position and output of a head for recording onto said recording medium are stabilized.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a two-stage detector portion, which is configured to detect a first detection for detecting that a button is pushed down from a convex-like condition to a first stage and a second detect for detecting that it is pushed down to a second stage between said first stage and said convex-like condition; and

a function exchange portion, which is configure to exchange a function to be executed upon said first detection or said second detection of said two-stage detector portion, depending upon a mode.

8. The apparatus, as described in the claim 7, wherein said function exchange portion exchange between a first mode for executing a function differently depending upon said first detection and said second detection, and a second mode for executing a same function depending upon said first detection and said second detection.

9. The apparatus, as described in the claim 8, wherein said two-stage detector portion does not execute the function upon said second detection when said second detection is detected and also said second detection is not released, when detecting said first detection, under said second mode.

10. The apparatus, as described in the claim 8, wherein said two-stage detector portion is a shutter 4 button, and

said shutter button executes a focus fitting upon said second detection under said first mode, and executes photographing of a still picture upon said first detection.

11. An imaging apparatus for recoding a picture onto a had disk in a form of UFD (Universal Disk Format), transmitting information indicating that said imaging apparatus is a hard disk apparatus to an external equipment connected therewith.