Device for controlling image signal recording operation

• US 6,006,043 A
• Filed: 10/23/1998
• Issued: 12/21/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Morisawa, Tahei
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Eddie C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chizmar, John
• Application Number:
  US09/176,934
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: 396/30, 396/429, 358/506, 358/302, 348/96
• US Class Current: 396/429
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00249 with a photographic apparatus, e.g. a photographic printer or a projector photographic apparatus per se G03B, G03D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00257 with an electro-developing recording medium, e.g. generating image signals by reading such a medium in a still camera

Abstract

An image signal recording operation control device is provided in a still video camera. The control device has a photographing optical system by which an image is formed on an electro-developing recording medium, by which the image is electronically developed. The control device also has a scanner optical system by which the image developed by the electro-developing recording medium is formed on a sensor imaging plane. A line sensor is provided for scanning on the sensor imaging plane to read out the image. When the electro-developing recording medium is not mounted in the still video camera, i.e., when an aerial image formed by the photographing optical system is read by the line sensor, the scanner optical system is displaced by a predetermined amount along the optical axis, in comparison with a state in which the electro-developing recording medium is mounted, so that the scanner optical system can form an in-focus image on the sensor imaging plane.

Claims

1. A device for controlling an image signal recording operation, comprising:

a photographing optical system;

an electro-developing recording medium electronically developing an image formed by said photographing optical system;

an illumination optical system illuminating said electro-developing recording medium, said illumination optical system being provided between said photographing optical system and said electro-developing recording medium;

a scanner optical system able to be positioned in an optical path of a light beam which is output by said illumination optical system and which passes through said electro-developing recording medium;

a moving mechanism that moves said illuminating optical system and said scanner optical system parallel to said electro-developing recording medium to read an image developed in the electro-developing recording medium, the electro-developing recording medium being stationary while being read by said illumination optical system and said scanner optical system, and

said illumination optical system and said scanner optical system being provided at a position which is offset from the optical axis of said photographing system.

2. A control device according to claim 1, wherein said electro-developing recording medium can be moved in a direction normal to the optical axis of said photographing optical system.

3. A control device according to claim 1, wherein said electro-developing recording medium has a plurality of recording areas, on each of which an image can be recorded, and can be moved in a direction in which said recording areas are arranged.

4. A control device according to claim 3, wherein one of said recording areas is positioned on the optical axis of said scanner optical system when another of said recording areas is positioned on the optical axis of said photographing optical system.

5. A control device according to claim 2, wherein said illumination optical system and said scanner optical system are fixed to said moving mechanism, so that said illumination optical system and said scanner optical system can be moved in a direction normal to the optical axis of said photographing optical system and in a direction in which said electro-developing recording medium is moved.

6. A control device according to claim 3, wherein said illumination optical system and said scanner optical system are fixed to said moving mechanism, so that said illumination optical system and said scanner optical system can be moved in a direction normal to the optical axis of said photographing optical system and in a direction in which said electro-developing recording medium is moved.

7. A control device according to claim 5, wherein said moving mechanism is provided with an optical sensor sensing an image formed by said scanner optical system.

8. A control device according to claim 1, wherein said electro-developing recording medium has first, second and third recording areas, on each of which an image can be recorded, and can be moved in a direction in which said recording areas are arranged.

9. A control device according to claim 8, further comprising a dichroic prism provided between said photographing optical system and said electro-developing recording medium, wherein an image in red, green and blue obtained by said dichroic prism is recorded in said first, second and third recording areas, respectively.