Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Masami Kidono

Hitoshi Hashimoto

Dai Kawase

Hideaki Yoshida

An automatic exposure ('AE'), control apparatus to prevent exposure errors resulting from 'smear.' Image-capturing is performed at a single exposure time TI (I=1, 2, . . . n); a CCD output is applied with a CCD drive signal to perform an integrating operation for a signal in an AE area using an integration circuit, and then outputs integration value EI+SI at each exposure time. A shutter trigger operation presents readout of an exposure value. An integrator value En+Sn obtained just before the shutter trigger operation, and a smear value Sn' obtained just after the shutter trigger operation are provided to an exposure operation/control circuit. The exposure operation/control circuit then performs an AE operation to receive En+Sn&#x2212;Sn&#x2248;En and compares the value to a target value for determining exposure conditions, and provides an AE operation value containing almost no smear component to determine an appropriate exposure condition.

Automatic exposure control apparatus and method

A plurality of pixel sets, each having 16 pixels are vertically provided successively one after another. A vertical transfer pathhas two groups a and b of transfer electrodesto. Two like sequence transfer electrodes in the two electrode groups are provided for each of the pixels in each set. Each pixel is connected via a shift gateto each transfer channel corresponding to each of the transfer electrodes in the electrode group a. To the transfer electrodes in the electrode group a, independent shift/transfer pulse application lead linesA are connected for applying independent gate pulses to the individual shift gates in addition to transfer pulses. Common lead lines are connected to the transfer electrodesandand, andand. Transfer pulse application lead linesB are connected to the transfer electrodes in the electrode group b. Thus, a CCD imaging device is constructed, which is capable of performing a desired read-out operation by 4-phase driving. A solid-state imaging device capable of reducing the numbers of lead lines for shift gate control gate electrodes for charge read-out to a vertical transfer path and external circuit connection terminals and capable of a special read-out, such as a multiple rate read-out is realized.

Solid-state imaging apparatus

An image pickup apparatus including: CCD image pickup device; a correction reference signal generating section for generating a correction reference signal for correcting effective image signals of the image pickup device from output signals of a vertical optical black pixel portion of the image pickup device; an image signal correcting section for subtracting the correction reference signal from an effective image signal; and CCD driver having a plurality of drive modes for driving the image pickup device to read pixel charges as output signals; wherein, when generating the reference signal, said correction reference signal generating section performs different types of reference signal generation processing corresponding to the plurality of drive modes of the CCD driver.

Electronic imaging apparatus operable in two modes with a different optical black correction procedure being effected in each mode

An electronic camera of the present invention includes a CCD, a diaphragm, an EEPROM, and a CPU. The CCD has a condenser micro-lens opposed to a light receptor. The diameter of the diaphragm is variable in relation to a plurality of f-numbers. In the EEPROM, data items of outputs of the CCD associated with the plurality of f-numbers or ratios of the outputs are stored in advance. The CPU calculates an exposure time according to an output of the CCD associated with a given f-number, controls exposure, and corrects an exposure time according to data stored in the EEPROM during recording.

Electronic camera

In an automatic exposure control apparatus, image-capturing is performed at a double exposure time TI (I&equals;1, 2, . . . ) and a single exposure time; a CCD output therein produced is applied with a CCD drive signal to perform an integrating operation for a signal in an AE area by using an integration circuit, and then outputs integration values 2EI&plus;SI and EI&prime;&plus;SI&prime; to an exposure operation/control circuit; and the exposure operation/control circuit then performs an AE operation to receive 2EI&plus;SI&minus;(EI&prime;&plus;SI&prime;)&ap;EI and compares the value to a target value for determining exposure conditions, and upon receipt of a shutter trigger, it uses an AE operation value containing almost no smear component to determine an appropriate exposure condition even in actual image-recording. According to the apparatus herein stated, exposure errors resulting from smears can be prevented.

Growing community of inventors

Tachikawa, Japan

Masami Kidono