Eastman-kodak Company

Kunihiko Kanai

Hiroshi Miyazawa

Hideo Nakamura

Masao Kobayashi

Shuji Asami

Naoki Mizutani

Hidenori Shiraki

Yuji Shibata

Masao Harada

An imaging apparatus includes an image sensor; a strobe unit; a preliminary. illumination controller which instructs the strobe unit to preliminarily illuminate for a predetermined period before main illumination; a reading controller which divides the image sensor into a plurality of regions, controls an exposure period for each region, corresponding to the preliminary illumination, and reads an image signal from each of the regions; and an imaging exposure setting unit which sets an appropriate amount of strobe light to be fired during imaging according to the image signals read from the regions; wherein the reading controller controls the exposure period for each region so that an overlapping period with the preliminary illumination period of the strobe unit is different from each other.

Imaging apparatus

When focus adjustment operation is performed, a first measured distance acquired by utilization of TTL-AF and a second measured value acquired by utilization of a distance between the eyes have been computed in advance. The degree of reliability of the first measured distance is compared the degree of reliability of the second measured distance in accordance with a result of a determination as to whether or not a face is detected, a result of a determination as to whether or not an ambient brightness value Br is equal to or less than a reference value, a result of a determination as to whether or not a focal length 'f' is equal to or less than a reference value, and a result of a determination as to whether or not a second measured distance De is less than a first measured distance Dt.

An image of appropriate exposure is obtained in a short period of time. A controller and timing generator performs photometric measurement by use of an image signal acquired from a CCD, and determines appropriate light exposure. The CCD is divided into a plurality of regions: for example, an odd-number line region and an even-number line region. Timing at which accumulated electric charges are read from the respective regions is changed, thereby changing the light exposure of an image signal read from each of the regions. When the amount of light fired during the main flash is adjusted by means of causing a strobe to fire preliminary light, read timing is changed in such a way that an electric charge accumulation period of the odd-number line regions comes to an arbitrary point in time during the course of firing of preliminary light. The amount of main flash light can be determined by means of acquiring a plurality of image signals having different light exposures or a photometric measurement signal through single firing of preliminary flash light.

The present invention provides a digital camera which has a plurality of image capturing optical systems and quickly performs automatic focusing. A digital camera includes a first image capturing optical system formed from a lensand a first image sensor, and a second image capturing optical system formed from a lensand a second image sensor. An image processor detects a phase difference between an image of a single subject formed on the first image sensor and an image of the same formed on the second image sensor, in order to perform phase-difference AF. Since the lenseshave different focal lengths, the image processor executes correlation operation after having performed conversion processing for causing a scaling factor of the image formed by the first image sensor to coincide with that of the image formed by the second image sensor, to thus detect a phase difference.

Image capturing apparatus

Coordinated image capturing is appropriately performed even if an error occurs in the synchronization between cameras that are connected via a network. Camera A for image capturing and camera B for providing strobe light are connected via a radio network, and camera A sets a point at which to start exposure for image capturing Tx and a point at which to start strobe emission Tf such that Tx is earlier than Tf, the time difference Id between Tx and Tf becomes larger than a synchronization error Ie between a synchronous clock of camera A and a synchronous clock of camera B, and the sum (Id+If+Ie) of the time difference Id, the strobe emission period If and the synchronization error Ie becomes smaller than exposure period Ix. Then, camera A outputs a strobe emission command with Tf designated and an exposure command with Tx designated, and controls the exposure control mechanism to start exposure at Tx in response to the exposure command. On the other hand, camera B controls the strobe mechanism to start strobe emission at Tf in response to the strobe emission command received via the radio network.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Kunihiko Kanai