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Movie camera having still picture photographing function and method of photographing still picture therewith

  • US 5,382,974 A
  • Filed: 10/01/1993
  • Issued: 01/17/1995
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1991
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A movie camera capable of producing a still photograph during a movie-photography operation, said camera comprising:

  • strobe means for illuminating objects to be photographed with stroboscopic flashes of light;

    solid-state image sensing means for electrically converting image information from light incident thereon into movie and still image signals;

    gain control means for controlling the gain of image signals output from the solid-state image sensing means;

    video processing and recording means for processing said image signals into movie and still video signals and recording said video signals on the same video recording medium;

    movie-photography initiation means for starting a movie-photography operation in which a plurality of movie video signals are successively recorded on the video signal recording medium;

    still-photography initiation means for starting a still-photography operation in which still-photography video signals are recorded on the video recording medium, said still-photography initiation means being capable of starting the still-photography operation during the movie-photography operation;

    electronic shutter speed control means for setting the shutter speed of said solid-state image sensing means to desired values to control exposure times during the movie and still photography operations;

    shutter speed switching means responsive to the starting of a still-photography operation by the still-photography initiation means for automatically changing the shutter speed set by the shutter speed control means to a shutter speed that is faster than the shutter speed set for a concurrently proceeding movie-photography operation to thereby decrease the exposure time of still image signals in the solid-state image sensing means as compared to exposure times of the movie image signals;

    still-photography controller means for determining the gains set by said gain control means and for instructing said gain control means to increase the gain of output image signals to gains which compensate for the decrease in exposure time caused by the increased shutter speed during the still-photography operation, and for activating the strobe means to illuminate the objects with stroboscopic flashes of light to supplement the effects of the increased gain in order to further compensate for the decrease in exposure time; and

    means for automatically returning the movie camera to the movie-photography operation upon completion of the still-photography operation;

    whereby the movie-photography operation is not perceptively interrupted by the still-photography operation.

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