IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS

• US 20130215285A1
• Filed: 02/15/2013
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Okuyama, Atsushi, Umezu, Takuji
• Granted Patent: US 8,957,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/221.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• 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 25/70 SSIS architectures; Circuits associated therewith

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus includes an image sensor that includes a plurality of first photoelectric conversion elements, and a plurality of second photoelectric conversion elements, a plurality of micro lenses each of which is provided for each pixel on the image sensor, and a controller configured to execute still image pickup using the plurality of second photoelectric conversion elements simultaneous with motion image pickup using the plurality of first photoelectric conversion elements. Each micro lens introduces a light flux from part of an exit pupil of the image pickup optical system to at least one first photoelectric conversion element, and a light flux from another part of the exit pupil to at least one second photoelectric conversion element.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

an image sensor that includes a plurality of first photoelectric conversion elements, and a plurality of second photoelectric conversion elements;

a plurality of micro lenses each of which is provided for each pixel on the image sensor; and

a controller configured to execute still image pickup using the plurality of second photoelectric conversion elements simultaneous with motion image pickup using the plurality of first photoelectric conversion elements,

wherein each micro lens introduces a light flux from part of an exit pupil of the image pickup optical system to at least one first photoelectric conversion element, and a light flux from another part of the exit pupil to at least one second photoelectric conversion element.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each micro lens maintains each of the first and second photoelectric conversion elements optically conjugate with the exit pupil.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an still image shutter unit configured to control a photoelectric conversion time period of the plurality of second photoelectric conversion elements.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the still image shutter unit is an electronic shutter configured to provide a signal used to output an electric charge stored in the plurality of second photoelectric conversion elements.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the still image shutter unit is configured to transmit and shield light that passes the image pickup optical system.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a light shielding ratio by the still image shutter unit corresponds to a ratio of the number of second photoelectric conversion elements to the number of all photoelectric conversion elements of each micro lens.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a still image pickup instructor into which an instruction of the still image pickup is input,

wherein the controller captures a still image when the instruction of the still image pickup is input into the still image pickup instructor.

8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller automatically captures a still image at preset intervals.

9. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a motion image pickup instructor into which an instruction of starting the motion image pickup and an instruction of stopping the motion image pickup are input,

wherein the controller starts the motion image pickup when the instruction of starting the motion image pickup is input into the motion image pickup instructor, and continues to the motion image pickup until the instruction of stopping the motion image pickup is input into the motion image pickup instructor irrespective of whether or not the still image pickup is performed.