Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Iolympus Optical Co., Ltd.

Masatoshi Ida

Kenichi Oinoue

Masahiro Aoki

Asao Hayashi

Junichi Nakamura

Akira Katoh

Kenji Kimura

Yutaka Yunoki

Kenji Fukuoka

Hisayuki Harada

Yoshio Fukuda

Manabu Inoue

Hideyuki Kenjyo

Takeomi Suzuki

Shinya Takahashi

Akihiko Hashimoto

Toshimasa Akagi

Atsuo Goto

Masaharu Imai

Shinichi Saitou

Makoto Oishi

Kouichi Shijima

An apparatus of the invention is capable of shifting a transducer, such as a head for erasing reproducing and recording information on a track formed on a recording medium, with fine positioning accuracy and high access speed. Further, the apparatus is capable of entirely erasing information to be erased on the medium by shifting the transducer with a desired degree while the transducer is excited for erasing operation. In the apparatus, a motion converting means, such as a disc cam or a helically grooved cylindrical cam, is employed for converting a primary rotating motion to a secondary stepwise motion so as to shift the transducer, presenting substantial dead band characteristics for the shifting motion. Further, a control means is employed for shifting the transducer over an area covering an information recorded track and the portions adjacent thereto to execute the erasing operation for an extended area along the track to be erased.

Apparatus and method for positioning a transducer for recording,

An apparatus of the invention is capable of shifting a transducer, such as a head for erasing, reproducing and recording information on a track formed on a recording medium, with fine positioning accuracy and high access speed. Further, the apparatus is capable of entirely erasing information to be erased on the medium by shifting the transducer with a desired degree while the transducer is excited for erasing operation. In the apparatus, a motion converting means, such as a disc cam or a helically grooved cylindrical cam, is employed for converting a primary rotating motion to a secondary stepwise motion so as to shift the transducer, presenting substantial dead band characteristics for the shifting motion. Further, a control means is employed for shifting the transducer over an area covering an information recorded track and the portions adjacent thereto to execute the erasing operation for an extended area along the track to be erased.

Apparatus for positioning a transducer for recording, reproducing or

An electronic camera includes three detachable units, a photographing unit, a record/play-back unit and a picture monitor unit. The photographing unit converts an output signal from a camera into a luminance signal and color difference signals. The record/play-back unit records an output signal from the photographing unit on a disk and is capable of reading a signal previously recorded on a disk. The picture monitor unit displays a picture responsive to a signal from the photographing unit or a signal from the record/play-back unit. The aforesaid units are provided with arrays of terminals electrically connected to electrical devices within their unit. A group of unique connectors establish electrical connections between the terminals of two of the one units. The connectors are designed to be coupled between any one of the associated arrays of terminals. One type of connector provides direct electrical connections between terminals of the associated arrays. A second of connector type includes electrical connections similar to those provided in the first connector type and further includes a built-in sync generator for generating a plurality of sync signals, said second connector having terminals for connecting said signals to predetermined ones of the terminals in an array of terminals provided along the housing of a unit. The use of these separate connectors reduces the number of sync generators required for the camera system and eliminates the need to build generators into each camera unit.

Detachable unit electronic camera

An assembly for accessing information recording tracks of an information storage medium comprises a transducer for recording and/or reproducing information; a transducer support carriage for advancing the transducer; a driving force generator for producing a driving force to shift the carriage; and motion converting means for converting an input motion from the driving force generating means to an output motion to be transmitted to the carriage. The motion converting means includes a cam with a spiraling peripheral surface having a plurality of fine step pitch shifting regions for precise tracking control and at least one rough pitch shifting region for shifting the transducer quickly from track to track on the recording medium.

Assembly for accessing information recording medium

A detachable unit electronic camera includes three detachable units, namely, a photographing unit, a record/playback unit and a picture monitor unit. The photographing unit has the function to convert an output signal from a camera into a luminance signal and color difference signals. The record/playback unit has the function of magnetically recording an output signal from the photographing unit on a magnetic disc and also the function of reading a signal which is previously recorded on the magnetic disc. The picture monitor unit has the function of displaying a picture in response to an output signal from the photograping unit or a signal which is reproduced from the record/playback unit. record/playback unit includes switches for selectively coupling external dubbing signals to the magnetic disc or for coupling signals from the record/playback unit to a detachably mounted dubbing unit including a recording medium which may receive dubbing signals from the record/playback unit.

A detachable unit electronic camera includes three detachable units, namely, a photographing unit, a record/playback unit and a picture monitor unit. The photographing unit has the function to convert an output signal from a camera into a luminance signal and color difference signals. The record/playback unit has the function of magnetically recording an output signal from the photographing unit on a magnetic disc and also the function of reading a signal which is previously recorded on the magnetic disc. The picture monitor unit has the function of displaying a picture in response to an output signal from the photographing unit or a signal which is reproduced from the record/playback unit.

An apparatus and method for detecting focus condition of an imaging optical system is disclosed. The apparatus comprises means for dividing a light flux transmitted through the imaging optical system into two sub-light fluxes, first and second light receiving element arrays disposed in front of and at the rear of a predetermined focal plane or a plane conjugated therewith and each having a plurality of light receiving elements, a light flux dividing optical system arranged at the light incident side of the light receiving element arrays for partially cutting incident light and constructed in such a manner that images projected upon respective light receiving element arrays by respective light fluxes transmitted mainly through first and second regions of the imaging optical system, which are divided by a plane including an optical axis of the imaging optical system, are shifted in the array direction in accordance with the amount of defocused condition, means for obtaining first and second evaluation functions representing image sharpness and third and fourth evaluation functions representing image lateral shift by processing outputs of the first and second light receiving element arrays, and means for deciding the defocused condition and the in-focused condition by arithmetically operating all evaluation functions.

Apparatus and method for detecting focus condition of an imaging optical

An exposure control device for an electronic photographing apparatus comprises a gate circuit, which can transfer a transfer gate driving signal to a transfer gate in synchronism to the horizontal vertical synchronization control of said solid state image sensor, and a shutter driving circuit, which can operate a shutter in synchronism with a transfer gate driving signal first generated after the appearance of a shutter release signal. While the shutter is open, the gate circuit inhibits the transfer gate driving signal.

Exposure control device for electronic photographing apparatus

A focus indicator for a TV camera includes a first image sensor and a video processor which convert an object image to a first video signal, an optical system for exit pupil dividing part of the object image to prepare a split image, and a second image sensor for converting the split image to a second video signal. A composing circuit generates a composite video signal from the first and second video signals in such a way as to include the split image component, and a viewfinder displays an image including the split image. A user of the TV camera thus can perform focusing by observing the split image in the viewfinder.

Focus indicator apparatus for an electronic camera

An apparatus for detecting focus conditions of an imaging optical system is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a light flux dividing means having a plurality of light flux dividing elements arranged at a predetermined focal plane or near a plane conjugated therewith, a photoelectric conversion means having a plurality of light receiving elements arranged to receive light fluxes divided by respective light flux dividing elements in line therewith and means for detecting focus conditions of the imaging optical system based on the outputs of the light receiving elements. The photoelectronic conversion means is so arranged that the cross-section of light fluxes incident upon respective light receiving elements at the exit pupil of the imaging optical system includes regions which are not overlapped with each other.

Apparatus for detecting focus conditions of an imaging optical system

In order to effect an automatic focus control in an image pick-up apparatus, a photography lens for forming an image of the object onto a two-dimensional solid state image sensing device is arranged in a fixed position, while the two-dimensional solid state image sensing device is arranged movably in the optical axis direction of the photography lens, and the image sensing device is moved in accordance with a focusing error signal detected by a focusing condition detecting circuit having an additional light receiving element mounted on the same substrate as the image sensor but discrete from and operating independently of the image sensor. Since the light and small solid state image sensing device is moved for the focus control instead of the heavy and large photography lens, it is possible to perform the focus control in a prompt manner and to make a mechanism for driving the image sensing device small and simple.

Automatic focus controlling apparatus and method

In a camera, a focus condition of an objective lens system is automatically detected in accordance with a combination of two different type detection methods. A light flux emanating from the objective lens system is divided into two light fluxes by means of a prism having a half mirror and a reflecting mirror and a first light flux transmitted through the half mirror is received by a first light receiving element array via a lenticular lens array and a second light flux reflected by the half mirror and reflecting mirror successively is directly received by a second light receiving element array. The lenticular lens array is so arranged that an exit pupil of the objective lens and the first light receiving element array are conjugated with each other and thus divided images of the exit pupil are projected upon respective elements of each pair of adjacent light receiving elements. At first, illumination signals supplied from the first image receiving element array are processed to derive a first evaluation value on the basis of an image lateral shift detection to indicate roughly a focal condition of the objective lens system. After the objective lens system has driven near the best focus position, illumination signals supplied from the first and second light receiving element arrays are processed to derive a second evaluation value on the basis of an image sharpness detection to indicate finely the focal condition of the objective lens system.

Apparatus and method for detecting focus condition of imaging optical

A method and apparatus for detecting focus conditions of a photographic optical system is disclosed. The invention comprises a member for dividing the wavefront of a light beam from a photographic optical system in an image space thereof, a first light receiving device including two photocell arrays provided in the front and the rear of a surface conjugated to a predetermined focal plane of the optical system, and a second light receiving device including at least one photocell array provided at a surface conjugated to one of the photocell arrays in the first light receiving device. A first signal representing horizontal shift of an optical image is detected based on outputs of at least one photocell array in the second light receiving device and one photocell array in the first light receiving device having a relation conjugated to the photocell array in the second light receiving device. A second signal representing defocused amount of the image is detected based on outputs of two photocell arrays in the first light receiving device thereby detecting focus conditions by the first and the second signals.

Method and apparatus for detecting focus conditions of a photographic

A solid state image sensor comprises an image sensing matrix comprised of a number of photoelectric elements arranged in a matrix array and a scanning circuit for two-dimensionally scanning the image sensing matrix by scanning signals to extract image signals. Picture element selection circuits are connected to horizontal and vertical lines of the image sensing matrix to pick up the output signals of photoelectric elements as photometric signals.

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Hachioji, Japan

Masatoshi Ida