Method of and apparatus for the production of photographic stills

• US 4,130,834 A
• Filed: 12/20/1974
• Issued: 12/19/1978
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Videoprint Gesellschaft Fur Industrie-Fernsehen mbH
• Original Assignee: Videoprint Gesellschaft Fur Industrie-Fernsehen mbH
• Inventors: Schmidt, Horst, Mender, Adolf
• Primary Examiner(s): Griffin, Robert L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Coles, Edward L.
• Application Number:
  US05/535,150
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: 178/6.8, 178/6.6 R, 178/6.7, 178/7.4, 358/127, 358/130, 358/302, 358/256, 358/134
• US Class Current: 386/200
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00283 with a television apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/12 using the sheet-feed movement or the medium-advance or the drum-rotation movement as the slow scanning component, e.g. arrangements for the main-scanningsheet-feed movement by translatory movement of a flat picture-bearing surface H04N1/1008; main-scanning using oscillating or rotating mirrors H04N1/113; using multi-element arrays H04N1/19
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/127 using a cathode ray tube or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2112 using still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2137 with temporary storage before final recording, e.g. in a frame buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0077 Types of the still picture apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 358/906 Hand-held camera with recorder in a single unit

Abstract

A method for producing photographic stills comprises producing a video signal by electronic high resolution scanning of the object to be photographed, writing the video signal into intermediate storage and reading the signal out of intermediate storage to write a photographic still, the time for writing the video signal into intermediate storage being shorter than the time for writing the still. An apparatus for producing photographic stills includes a electronic camera tube and a permanent storage means into which the video signal provided by the camera is written more rapidly than it is read out. The apparatus may also include an inverting video signal storage unit and associated repetition generator.

Claims

1. A method for producing and processing photographic quality video signals comprising the steps of:

converting an optical image into a video signal by high resolution electronic scanning at a scanning rate of at least about 1,000 lines per image wherein the exposure time for producing the video signal is less than about 10 milliseconds;

writing said video signal into intermediate storage, the time for writing said video signal into intermediate storage being less than about 40 milliseconds; and

,

reading said video signal out of intermediate storage into permanent storage, the time for writing the video signal into intermediate storage being shorter than the time for reading the video signal out of intermediate storage into permanent storage.

2. A method of producing a photographic still by producing an optical image of the photographed object during a usual short exposure time, in which an electric charge pattern corresponding to the image is maintained beyond the end of the exposure and is converted by a single electronic high resolution scan at a scanning rate of at least 1,000 lines per image into a video signal which is intermediately stored, the time for completely scanning the charge pattern of one image and intermediately storing the corresponding video signal being less than about 40 milliseconds, in which the intermediately stored video signal is permanently stored, the time for writing the signal into intermediate storage being shorter than for writing into permanent storage, and in which the still is written by the permanently stored video signal.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 in which the video signal that is to be written out is taken to an inverting video signal storage unit and read out from this unit several times per second.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2 in which the exposure time is less than about 10 milliseconds.

5. A method as claimed in claim 2 in which the picture is written by a picture display tube.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 in which the picture display tube is used to print out on a photosensitive paper.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 in which the photosensitive paper is fed in intermittent steps past a printing tube for a line-by-line print-out.

8. Apparatus for producing a photographic still, comprising:

means for producing an optical image of the photographed object during a usual, short exposure time for a photographic still, in which an electronic charge pattern corresponding to the image is maintained beyond the end of the exposure;

means for converting the charge pattern into a video signal by high resolution, electronic scanning at a scanning rate of at least 1,000 lines per image;

intermediate storage means for storing the video signal, the time for scanning the one image and intermediately storing the corresponding video signal being less than about 40 milliseconds;

permanent storage means for permanently storing the video signal, the time for writing the signal into intermediate storage being shorter than for writing the signal into permanent storage; and

,

means, employing the permanently stored video signal, for writing the still.

9. Apparatus as climed in claim 8 in which the intermediate storage unit comprises a video signal storage tube and an associated deflection system of selectable deflection frequency.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 in which the permanent storage means comprises a magnetic core or a magnetic tape.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 including means for repetitively generating the video signal read from the intermediate storage means.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 in which the still writing means has a display tube adapted to print on photosensitive paper.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 in which the still writing system comprises a deflection system of adjustable amplitude and position.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 including an inverting video signal storage unit and associated repetition generator for inverting and repetitively generating the video signal read from the intermediate storage means.

15. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 in which the still writing means comprises a one-line electronic printing tube and an associated intermittent feed for feeding a photosensitive paper in steps at constant average speed past the printing tube perpendicularly to the direction in which the tube prints.

16. Apparatus as claimed in claim 15 in which the printing tube is provided with a glass fibre optical system.