Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Hiroshi Akizuki

Nobuhide Dotsubo

Toshiyuki Watanabe

An electronic camera free from failures of an internal circuit, such as a signal processing portion, caused by a drop in battery voltage when there remains a small amount of electric charge in the battery, includes a signal processing portion for signal-processing an imaged video signal obtained from an imaging element to form image data, a monitor for displaying the image data, an electronic flash device, a battery for supplying current to the signal processing portion, the monitor and the electronic flash device, a battery voltage detector circuit, and a system controller. The electronic flash device includes a capacitor charged when no light is emitted, and a discharged tube receiving an output from the capacitor and emitting light. The system controller receives an output from the battery voltage detector circuit, determines whether the amount of electric charge remaining in the battery is below a predetermined value, and controls displaying on the monitor and charging of the capacitor not to be simultaneously performed when the amount of electric charge remaining in the battery is below the predetermined value.

Electronic camera and battery voltage controlling method employed therein for successively, rather than simultaneously, operating camera portions during conditions of low battery voltage

An electronic camera free from failures of an internal circuit, such as a signal processing portion, caused by a drop in battery voltage when there remains a small amount of electric charge in the battery, includes a signal processing portion for signal-processing an imaged video signal obtained from an imaging element to form image data, a monitor for displaying the image data, an electronic flash device, a battery for supplying current to the signal processing portion, the monitor and the electronic flash device, a battery voltage detector circuit, and a system controller. She electronic flash device includes a capacitor charged when no light is emitted, and a discharge tube receiving an output from the capacitor and emitting light. The system controller receives an output from the battery voltage detector circuit, determines whether the amount of electric charge remaining in the battery is below a predetermined value, and controls displaying on the monitor and charging of the capacitor such that these operations are simultaneously performed when the amount of electric charge remaining in the battery is below the predetermined value.

Device detecting the amount of charge remaining in a battery

Image pick-up device reads image pick-up signals of all the pixels of CCD only when a light intercepting plate is moved from the light non-intercepting position to the light intercepting position for the first time after a battery replacement. By comparing the image pick-up signal from each pixel with a first threshold value, a possibly defective pixels are extracted. Thereafter, by reading the image pick-up signals for a prescribed number of times from CCD, accumulated value of the image pick-up signals of each of the possibly defective pixels is calculated. Based on the result of comparison between the accumulated value corresponding to each of the possibly defective pixels and second threshold value, an actually defective pixel is specified from the possibly defective pixels.

Defective pixel detecting circuit of a solid state image pick-up device

Image pick-up device reads image pick-up signals of all the pixels of CCD2 once when an optical system is in light intercepted state. By comparing the image pick-up signal from each pixel with a first threshold value THL1, a possibly defective pixels are extracted. Thereafter, by reading the image pick-up signals for a prescribed number of times from the CCD2, accumulated value of the image pick-up signals of each of the possibly defective pixels is calculated. Based on the result of comparison between the accumulated value corresponding to each of the possibly defective pixels and second threshold value THL2, an actually defective pixel is specified from the possibly defective pixels.

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Takatsuki, Japan

Hiroshi Akizuki