Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Hideaki Tsuji

Tadayuki Kirigaya

Isamu Hirai

Masahiro Nakata

Hiroyuki Takahashi

Masaaki Haga

Tetsuo Hosokawa

Koji Sato

Masato Yamamoto

Akio Takahashi

Masashi Furuno

Yasuyuki Haneishi

Katsuki Machida

Nobuhiko Matsudo

A camera having a photographic mode automatic selecting apparatus. A photographic mode selecting device selects a photographic mode from a plurality of photographic modes. A photographic distance detecting device detects photographic distance data of a photographic lens. The photographic mode selecting device selects an appropriate photographic mode from the plurality of photographic modes based on the photographic distance data of the photographic lens.

Camera with a photographic mode automatic selecting apparatus

The present invention relates to an optical camera having a zoom function in which a focal length can be varied or the variation is actuated by a focal length changing member, and in particular to a camera in which a focal length is varied through a motor. The optical camera has a zoom lens operable by a rotatable zoom ring for changing the focal length thereof. An automatic focusing operation is effected by a control means when the focal length is changed so that an image of an object viewed through a viewfinder remains in focus. The zoom lens can include a motor and an in-exposure zoom control means can be provided for controlling zooming movement of the lens during an exposure operation.

Motor driven zoom camera

A camera wherein exposure parameters fixed by a program line can be shifted along an exposure value EV line so that exposure parameters for an exposure operation are based on the shifted program line according to the preference of the camera user. The camera has setting means for temporarily changing these exposure parameters at a constant exposure value with respect to the values predetermined by a program line. A counting means counts the number of times that a shutter is released while the program line is shifted in one direction and control means stores the changed values for shifting the program line under certain conditions. In this way a learning function is provided to learn the aforementioned tendency of the user.

Camera with learning function

An information setting and displaying device for a camera, has a ring-like rotary dial rotatably mounted in an adjustable manner on a camera body. A display member includes at least a pair of display sub-areas arranged inside the rotary dial and successively along an inner periphery of the rotary dial. An information setting mechanism changes information in a predetermined order responsive to rotation of the dial. A display control mechanism displays current set information in one of the display sub-areas, and displays proposed information, to be set as the rotary dial rotates, in the direction from the current display sub-area toward another display sub-area.

Information setting and displaying device for a camera

An information setting and displaying device for a camera has a rotary dial mounted on a camera body to be rotatable stepwise. A display member is provided adjacent the rotary dial, and includes at least a pair of display sub-areas arranged along the direction in which the rotary dial rotates. An information setting mechanism sets information by operating said rotary dial. A display control mechanism displays current set information in one of the display sub-areas and displays a proposed information, to be set as the rotary dial rotates in a direction from one of the display sub-area toward the other display sub-area by at least one step. The proposed information is displayed in the other display sub-area. The information includes at least one of a shutter speed, a diaphragm stop, and an exposure compensation value.

Information setting and display device for a camera

A camera having a zoom lens. The camera includes a shutter, an aperture and program exposure mode control. The program exposure control includes one or more reference program characteristics representing combinations of shutter speed and aperture corresponding to one or more of a portrait mode, a landscape mode and a close up mode. Each reference program characteristics define a predetermined aperture in a first range from a low shutter speed to a hand-induced vibration limit and defines a different aperture in a second range beyond the hand-induced vibration limit. One of the reference program characteristics is selected, wherein the hand-induced vibration limit is defined in accordance with a focal length of said zoom lens.

A strobe control device for a camera has a light receiving element for receiving and integrating light reflected from a film surface of a film used in the camera. The strobe control device further includes a controller which controls a strobe to emit light. The controller controls the strobe to stop emitting light when the amount of light integrated by the light receiving element reaches a threshold value. The threshold value is adjusted so that the effects on the amount of light received by the light receiving element are canceled when predetermined parameters of a photographing optical path of the camera are changed.

Strobe control device for camera

A photometry system for a camera has a finder optical system for receiving light reflected by an object and for forming an image of the object on a finder field, the image corresponding to an image that is formed on a film surface. The photometry system also includes an indicator for projecting a predetermined image onto a predetermined area of the finder field: a photometric sensor that detects a brightness of the image formed on the finder field; and a controller which inhibits the indicator from projecting the predetermined image onto the finder field when the photometric sensor is detecting a brightness of a portion of the finder field which includes the predetermined area.

Photometry system

An exposure control apparatus of a camera having a photometer, a film sensitivity detector, a calculator which calculates an exposure value, a diaphragm value and a shutter speed in accordance with a measurement by the photometer and the film sensitivity, an object distance detector, a strobe, a limit diaphragm value calculator that calculates a first limit diaphragm value, which varies with the film sensitivity, and a second limit diaphragm value, which varies with the object distance, when strobe light is emitted, and a minimum limit diaphragm value setting device which compares the first and second limit diaphragm values and selects the larger diaphragm value as the minimum limit diaphragm value to be used in the exposure control.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hideaki Tsuji