Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Masayasu Hirano

Hiroshi Ootsuka

Naohiro Kageyama

Takehiro Katoh

Toshihiko Ishimura

Yoshihiko Azuma

Masaaki Nakai

Kenji Tsuji

Akihiko Fujino

Takeshi Egawa

Norio Ishikawa

Kunio Kawamura

Manabu Inoue

Hideo Kajita

Hiroshi Ueda

Nobuyuki Taniguchi

Nobuharu Murashima

Yukio Miki

Hidehiko Fujii

Yasuteru Yamano

Takeshi Matsumoto

Yujiro Mima

Mamoru Katsuragi

Tetsuro Ohya

Tae Iida

Masakazu Yagi

Shigeto Ohmori

Shuji Izumi

Reiji Seki

Kazuhiko Naruse

Satoshi Yokota

Yasuo Maeda

Fumio Yoshida

Takashi Kato

Hirokazu Kuroda

Noriyuki Ishii

Akira Kataoka

Tetsuo Yamada

Naoya Takata

Yasushi Hasegawa

Hiroko Ono

Toru Kasai

Chisato Kasuya

Koichi Ujike

A camera having a display unit that displays information regarding the functions of the camera and the photo-taking scenes in an abbreviated fashion by means of characters, symbols and/or codes, a voice synthesizer that provides information regarding the functions of the camera and the photo-taking scenes by means of voice sounds and a magnetic head that records the information regarding the photo-taking scenes (the photo-taking dates and titles) in the recording area of the film. Consequently, this camera provides by means of voice sounds information that may not be fully displayed in the display unit.

Display device connectable to a camera

A camera is provided with a photographing device for setting various photographing conditions which determine a state of a subject image to be obtained as a picture, the photography device including an exposure device having a Plurality of selectively settable exposure modes for automatically setting at least one exposure value based on brightness of a subject, a mode selector for selecting one of the plurality of exposure modes, a calculation unit for calculating an amount indicative of the state of the subject image in accordance with the photographing conditions set by the photography device, an estimation unit for estimating visual effects which the subject image provides based on the calculated state amount, and a display device for displaying the visual effect corresponding to the exposure mode selected by the mode selection means in accordance with the estimated visual effects. Accordingly, an operator of the camera is allowed to conceive before an exposing operation what the final picture will look like in accordance with the photographing conditions set in a variety of exposure modes.

Camera capable of displaying the level of visual effect

A camera system comprises a brightness measuring circuit, a exposure line choosing circuit, an operable switch, a film driver and a film driving mode selector. The brightness measuring circuit measures brightness of a photographic scene to send a brightness value. The exposure line choosing circuit chooses one of a plurality of exposure lines in which each lines selects a combination of an aperture value and a shutter speed value at each brightness value. The film driver drives a film in either of a first mode in which the film is wound only one frame in response to the operation of the operable switch and a second mode in which the film is wound frame by frame continuously as long as the operable member is operated. The film driving mode selector selects one of the modes in accordance with the exposure line chosen by the choosing circuit. In the camera system, a photographer may only select the exposure mode in accordance with his intention and purpose in photography, and then the film driving mode corresponding to the intention and purpose is automatically selected.

Camera system

In a sound playback apparatus, by attaching thereto a medium in which sound data are recorded in each area thereof and a print in each frame of which a code indicating a sound recording area is recorded, the sound playback apparatus can play back sound data corresponding to the photographed frames of the film respectively from the medium.

Sound playback apparatus capable of playing back sounds relevant to

A camera system being comprised of a camera and an external device is disclosed. The external device is detachably mounted on the camera which memorizes a program or data necessary for executing a program therein. When the external device is mounted on the camera, they are connected electrically with each other and communicate therebetween in order to read a program or data memorized in the external device into a memory means provided in the camera. The camera is controlled according to the program designated by the external device.

A camera system comprises a selector, an operable switch, a changing circuit and an inhibiting circuit. The selector selects one of a plurality of exposure lines. The changing circuit change as combination of the aperture value and the shutter speed value determine by both the selected exposure line and a brightness value in response to the operation of the operable switch. The inhibiting circuit inhibits the operation of changing circuit when a predetermined exposure line is selected by the selector. In the camera system, a photographer may only select the exposure mode through the operable switch in accordance with his intention and purpose in photography, and then the change of the exposure combination is inhibited in a certain exposure mode.

A camera includes an object distance detecting device. The detected object distance can be used to calculate magnification which, in turn, can be used to determine an aperture value. The object distance detecting device can be selectively operated depending on, for example, whether flash lighting is being used.

A camera exposure control system based on multi-spot light measurement is designed to determine the exposure value from measured values provided by measuring the brightness of arbitrary portions of the photographic view field a plurality of number of times. With exposure control mode based on multi-spot light measurement being selected by the photographer, exposure control is implemented based on the exposure value resulting from multi-spot light measurement, and the operation of the flash device is disabled automatically. With flash light photography mode being selected by the photographer, exposure control based on multi-spot light measurement is disabled, and exposure control based on averaged light measurement or exposure control for flash light photography is implemented. In the case of program exposure control based on the exposure value resulting from multi-spot light measurement, the exposure control value is determined by restoring the reference program line at each implementation of the program exposure control based on a new exposure value, even if the program line has been altered.

Camera exposure control system selectively operative in exposure control

Camera system having the plurality of manually settable parameters for

A bracket photographing apparatus for a camera system using a flash light unit. In a flash bracket photographing, a series of photographs (frames) are taken with the film exposure differing between the frames, where the exposure difference is caused by a change in the light emitting amount of the flash light unit. The invention also considers the case where a flash light unit is not attached to the camera body, or is not controllable by the system (e.g., the attached flash light unit is not a controllable type).

Flash bracket photographing apparatus for a camera

In a camera capable of recording sound data corresponding to photographed frames of a film respectively, the sound data can be recorded in a first memory (e.g. a sound IC card), and data indicating correspondence between the photographed frames of a film and the sound data respectively can be recorded in a second memory (e.g. a film). Though the first memory, namely, the sound recording memory and the second memory, namely, the film are separate, the recorded sounds can accurately correspond to the photographed frames of the film respectively. In a sound playback apparatus, by attaching thereto a medium in which sound data are recorded in each area thereof and a print in each frame of which a code indicating a sound recording area is recorded, the sound playback apparatus can play back sound data corresponding to the photographed frames of the film respectively from the medium.

Camera capable of recording sounds relevant to the photographing

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Osaka, Japan

Masayasu Hirano