Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd.

Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Kouji Kaneko

Motohiko Horio

Naoki Kobayashi

Kiyotaka Kaneko

Fujio Okada

Kazutsugu Ogata

Satoshi Mikajiri

Kazuhisa Seki

Izumi Miyake

Minoru Ishiguro

Masanori Yoshida

Akira Muramatsu

Toru Kondo

A small-sized tripod head for tilting or panning a television camera or the like by remote control. The connecting cable of the tripod head does not obstruct a smooth motion of the tripod head. Annular terminals are disposed on the outer periphery of a driving shaft extending over 360 degrees, and brush contacts which come into contact with the annular terminals are provided on the main body. The annular terminals and the contacts constitute a power supply line, which allows the driving shaft to rotate more than 360 degrees. A light guide is disposed at the center of the driving shaft, and a photoelectric transducer is provided on the main body in such a manner as to be isolated from the light guide. A control signal, a video signal, etc. are transmitted by the light guide and the photoelectric transducer. This light signal transmission line can transmit various light signals by using a plurality of beams having different wavelengths obtained by a beam splitter.

Small-sized tripod head with connecting cable attached to driving shaft

A novel method and apparatus for auto-focussing which includes determining a focus voltage E.sub.S0 in a current position of a focus lens and focus voltages E.sub.S+ +and E.sub.S- when the focus lens is moved by a distance dx in both a front and rear direction along an optical axis, so that a focussing shift value is calculated more accurately and quick focussing is achieved. A distance X.sub.0 from the current position of the focus lens to the focussing position is calculated based on the focus voltages E.sub.S0, E.sub.S+ and E.sub.S- according to:

Method of auto-focussing and system therefor

An electronic still camera has a mechanical diaphragm mechanism for controlling the exposure of an image surface. The diaphragm mechanism includes an exposure plate having an opening of an aperture greater than an effective aperture corresponding to an open f-stop value, and at least one opening equal to an effective aperature corresponding to an f-stop value. By shifting the diaphragm plate, it is possible to set at least two types of f-stop values which include the open f-stop value. As a result, a diaphragm function in which effective aperture is made less than 1 mm can be achieved with a high degree of accuracy.

Electronic still camera

A filter is provided which can pass therethrough only a signal component having a frequency corresponding to a secondary higher harmonic frequency component (200-240 Hz) of the fluorescent light of the output signal from a light-receiving element for receiving incident light thereto from the photograph area. Based on the signal which is passed through the filter, it is detected whether the photography area is illuminated with the fluorescent light. Since the color temperatures of sunlight (outdoors in fine weather) and fluorescent light show substantially the same value, it is difficult to distinguish two kinds of above light sources. A ripple period of the fluorescent light and the like is measured, and the output signal of a light detecting device (e.g., a color temperature sensor, photometry element, and so forth) is sampled at a plurality of times in a length of time equivalent to one period of the measured ripple period. Therefore, even for a photograph under artificial light which includes ripple components, an average of the quantity of the incident light can be detected and the white balance adjustment and the exposure control can be appropriately conducted. As a result, it is possible to distinguish between sunlight and fluorescent light and an accurate white balance adjustment can be made and the color reproducibility can be greatly improved even under fluorescent light.

Camera

In a still-video camera, a video signal representing the image of a photographed subject is written in a video floppy during one revolution of the floppy, namely during an interval between one phase pulse PG and the next. Immediately after the phase pulse PG is generated, a field-shift pulse FS for reading the video signal out of an electronic image pick-up device is outputted. Read-out from the electronic image pick-up device by the field-shift pulse FS is inhibited during the time that a shutter is open. Writing is carried out from the moment of the next phase pulse PG after read-inhibit is cancelled. If the inhibition on read-out from the electronic image pick-up device were to be cancelled between the phase pulse PG and the field-shift pulse FS, read-out of the video signal by the field-shift pulse FS would be carried out, but it would not be possible to carry out recording without waiting for the next phase pulse PG. By providing reading and writing at timings as described above, it is possible to carry out recording without waiting for the next phase pulse PG.

Still-video camera for inhibiting read-out of a video signal when the

An electronic camera includes an electronic camera unit for generating a still image signal, an encoder for converting the still image signal from the electronic camera unit into a television signal and for issuing the television signal through an output terminal to a video recorder, and an electronic viewfinder for displaying the television signal as a visible image. The encoder and the electronic viewfinder are contained in an adapter detachably connected to the electronic camera unit. The television signal from the encoder is applied directly to a video circuit in the video viewfinder, and also delivered through a connector or a coupling terminal to the video recorder.

Electronic camera

An image pickup apparatus using an image sensor is provided with a rotary shutter that controls the amount of time the image-forming light strikes the image sensor. A synchronism detector is provided to detect the phase difference between the rotation of the rotary shutter and the scanning of the image sensor by comparing the phase signals produced according to the speed of rotation of the rotary shutter and vertical synchronizing signals periodically produced as well as scanning signals for scanning the image sensor. When there is no phase difference between the two signals, the synchronism detector provides an operation signal which causes a switching circuit to be conductive, so as to permit an image recorder to record images. On the other hand, if there is a phase difference, the synchronism detector provides no operation signal and the switching circuit is rendered non-conductive so as to prevent the image recorder from recording images.

Image pickup apparatus with a rotary shutter

A magnetic head feed device for feeding a magnetic head for recording information on a magnetic recording disk and/or reproducing information from the magnetic recording disk in a radial direction of the magnetic recording disk includes a driving force source which outputs a driving force for feeding the magnetic head as a rotational motion thereof, a rotational motion-linear motion converting mechanism for converting the rotational motion of the driving force source into a linear motion of the magnetic head. The rotational motion-linear motion converting mechanism includes a spur gear to be rotated upon rotation of the driving force source, a shaft portion which is coaxially connected to the spur gear to be rotated together therewith and is provided with an enlarged diameter portion having a male thread portion formed on the outer surface thereof, a female screw unit having an elongated passage through which the shaft portion extends and which is longer than the enlarged diameter portion of the shaft portion, the female screw unit being fixedly mounted and provided with a female thread portion into which the male thread portion of the shaft portion is screwed, and a pair of lid members which are mounted on the respective ends of the passage to close the passage and are provided with circular central openings through which the shaft portion extends into the passage and projects therefrom so that the enlarged diameter portion is positioned between the lid members.

Magnetic head feed mechanism including a dust preventing means

A rotary shutter adapted to be used in an electronic still camera comprises a rotatable shutter having shutter openings which are variable in size. The shutter is rotated by an electric motor in order to open and close intermittently an exposure aperture of the camera. A phase detector for detecting the phase of rotation of the shutter member provides a series of phase signal, and cooperates with a signal generator for generating stop signals in synchronism with the phase signals when a particular shutter speed is selected and a circuit for braking the motor to stop the shutter member. Responsive to the particular shutter speed selecting operation, the shutter opening is opened to its maximum size and the rotary shutter is simultaneously stopped quickly in position so as to open fully the exposure aperture of the camera.

Rotary shutter

A voltage dividing circuit containing a switching element is connected in parallel with a main capacitor of which a highly charged voltage is applied to a flash lamp for flashing. Only when the switching element is turned on does the voltage dividing circuit produce a divided voltage. The divided voltage is compared with a reference voltage. The result of the comparison is used for detecting the charged voltage across the main capacitor.

Circuit for detecting charged voltage of electronic flash

A rotary shutter device for use in an electronic still camera or a VTR camera has an XY-addressable solid-state imaging device for converting an optical image read by successive horizontal scanning into a video signal, a shutter blade disposed in front of the solid-state imaging device and rotatable about its own axis, the shutter blade having at least one opening for transmitting light therethrough onto the photodetector surface of the solid-state imaging device, and an adjusting blade disposed adjacent to the shutter blade for varying the opening angle of the opening. The shutter and adjusting blades are rotatable together in a direction to successively expose the solid-state imaging device to incident light in the direction in which the solid-state imaging device is vertically scanned. The scanning of the solid-state imaging device for one field is completed between two successive exposures thereof through the opening in the shutter blade.

Growing community of inventors

Omiya, Japan

Kouji Kaneko