IMAGING APPARATUS

• US 20100149377A1
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OM Digital Solutions Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Imaging Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: SHINTANI, Koichi, Nonaka, Osamu, Ishihara, Haruyuki, Kawaguchi, Katsuhisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,502,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/231.500
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• 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 23/681 Motion detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit that includes a shooting lens for collecting an image of a subject to be shot; and an imaging element that forms the image collected by the shooting lens and generates image data through photoelectric conversion of formed image. The imaging apparatus also includes an inclination detector that detects an inclination of the imaging apparatus from a predetermined position, through a rotation around a shooting optical axis of the shooting lens. The apparatus also includes a control unit that changes an operating mode to a switchable state capable of switching between operating modes when a predetermined time has elapsed in a state in which the inclination detected by the inclination detector falls within a predetermined range in which the operating modes of the imaging apparatus are switched to each other.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an imaging unit that includes

a shooting lens for collecting an image of a subject to be shot; and

an imaging element that forms the image collected by the shooting lens and generates image data through photoelectric conversion of formed image;

an inclination detector that detects an inclination of the imaging apparatus from a predetermined position, through a rotation around a shooting optical axis of the shooting lens; and

a control unit that changes an operating mode to a switchable state capable of switching between operating modes when a predetermined time has elapsed in a state in which the inclination detected by the inclination detector falls within a predetermined range in which the operating modes of the imaging apparatus are switched to each other.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit that displays an image contained in the image data generated by the imaging unit, wherein

the control unit changes the operating mode to the switchable state when a predetermined time has elapsed in a state in which the inclination detected by the inclination detector falls within a predetermined range in which the operating modes of the imaging apparatus are switched to each other, and causes the display unit to display the image data corresponding to the operating mode after being switched.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the display unit displays an image shot by the imaging unit with an aspect ratio corresponding to the operating mode.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a switch that sets a mode being the operating mode related to a shooting operation by the imaging unit, wherein

the control unit switches between the operating modes when an angle θ

of inclination from the predetermined position, the angle being an angle of the inclination detected by the inclination detector after the switch is operated, falls within a predetermined angle range including arctan(T·

X−

H·

Y)/(T·

Y−

H·

X), wherein the imaging element has an aspect ratio of X;

Y and an aspect ratio of an image to be displayed in the operating mode after the switching is H;

T.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the operating mode is a still-image mode used to shoot a still image or a moving-image mode used to shoot a moving image.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit switches between the operating modes when an angle θ

of inclination from the predetermined position, the angle being an angle of the inclination detected by the inclination detector after the operating mode is changed to the switchable state, falls within a predetermined angle range including θ

=0.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the operating mode is a simultaneous shooting mode used to simultaneously shoot a still image and a moving image, a still-image mode used to shoot a still image, or a moving-image mode used to shoot a moving image.

8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the still-image mode and the moving-image mode respectively include a lower-order mode, and

the control unit changes an operating mode, being set to the still-image mode or to the moving-image mode, to a switchable state to a lower-order mode of the set operating mode, when a predetermined time has elapsed in a state in which the inclination detected by the inclination detector falls within a predetermined range in which the operating modes of the imaging apparatus are switched to each other.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the control unit performs switching to the lower-order mode when an angle θ

of inclination from the predetermined position, the angle being an angle of the inclination detected by the inclination detector after the operating mode is changed to the switchable state to the lower-order mode, falls within a predetermined angle range including θ

=0.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising an auxiliary light-emitting unit that emits an auxiliary light irradiating a subject to be shot, wherein

the lower-order mode includes at least two modes among a forced light-emitting mode of the auxiliary light-emitting unit, a non-light-emitting mode of the auxiliary light-emitting unit, a closeup shooting mode, and a distant-view shooting mode.

11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a release switch which is operated to input a signal instructing shooting by the imaging unit, wherein

the control unit switches an operating mode to the operating mode immediately after the power for the imaging apparatus is turned on when the release switch is not operated for a determined time after the operating mode is changed to the switchable state to the lower-order mode.

12. The imaging apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the operating mode immediately after the power for the imaging apparatus is tuned on is the simultaneous shooting mode.

13. The imaging apparatus according to claim 12, wherein

the control unit performs switching to the lower-order mode when an angle θ

of inclination from the predetermined position, the angle being an angle of the inclination detected by the inclination detector after the operating mode is changed to the switchable state to the lower-order mode, falls within a predetermined angle range including θ

=0.

14. The imaging apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising an auxiliary light-emitting unit that emits an auxiliary light irradiating a subject to be shot, wherein

the lower-order mode includes at least two modes among a forced light-emitting mode of the auxiliary light-emitting unit, a non-light-emitting mode of the auxiliary light-emitting unit, a closeup shooting mode, and a distant-view shooting mode.

15. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a release switch which is operated to input a signal instructing shooting by the imaging unit, wherein

the control unit switches between the operating modes when the release switch is operated for input after the operating mode is changed to the switchable state.

16. The imaging apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the operating mode is a still-image mode used to shoot a still image or a moving-image mode used to shoot a moving image.

17. The imaging apparatus according to claim 16, wherein

the control unit causes the imaging unit to start shooting according to a switched operating mode when the imaging apparatus is returned to the predetermined position in a state in which the release switch is operated for input is continued from before the switching of the operating mode.

18. The imaging apparatus according to claim 16, wherein

the control unit causes, after the operating mode is switched, the imaging unit to start shooting according to switched operating mode when the imaging apparatus is returned to the predetermined position and the release switch is again operated for input.

19. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a switch that sets a mode being the operating mode related to a display operation by the display unit, wherein

the control unit switches between the operating modes when an angle θ

of inclination from the predetermined position, the angle being an angle of the inclination detected by the inclination detector after the switch is operated, falls within a predetermined angle range including arctan(T·

X−

H·

Y)/(T·

Y−

H·

X), wherein the imaging element has an aspect ratio of X;

Y and an aspect ratio of an image to be displayed in the operating mode after the switching is H;

T.

20. The imaging apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the operating mode is a still-image display mode or a moving-image display mode in which a still image or a moving image is displayed by the display unit.

21. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a recording unit that records the image data generated by the imaging unit in association with shooting date and time, wherein

the display unit can switch, for display, between a first thumbnail composed of typical scenes of moving images arranged in the order of the shooting date and time and a second thumbnail composed of reduced images of a plurality of still images arranged in the order of the shooting date and time, and

the control unit causes the display unit to display an image selected from the first or the second thumbnail, and then to display either one of the first and the second thumbnail including an image shot in the same period of time as that of selected image according to the inclination of the imaging apparatus.