Eastman-Kodak Company

Kodak Company

Peter Labaziewicz

Kenneth Alan Parulski

Wilbert F Janson, Jr

Hideki Akiyama

An imaging apparatus suppresses deterioration in an image quality caused by an electronic zoom. A digital camera equipped with a plurality of optical systems includes a fixed focal distance lens and a zoom lens. When a user sets a zoom position between discrete optical zoom positions within an overlapping range of the electronic zoom range of the fixed focal distance lens and the optical zoom range of the zoom lens, a control processor and timing generator sets the electronic zoom at the user's setting zoom position. Subsequently, when the zoom position of the zoom lens passes the user's setting zoom position, a photograph is taken, and an optical zoom image is stored in a memory card.

Imaging apparatus

A digital camera includes a first image sensor, a first wide angle lens for forming a first image of a scene on the first image sensor; a second image sensor, a zoom lens for forming a second image of the same scene on the second image sensor, a control element for selecting either a first sensor output from the first image sensor or a second sensor output from the second image sensor, and a processing section for producing the output image from the selected sensor output. In one variation of this embodiment, the first lens is also a zoom lens, where the maximum focal length of the first lens is less than or equal to the minimum focal length of the second zoom lens.

Digital camera using multiple lenses and image sensors to provide an extended zoom range

An optical image capture assembly for use in an electronic camera includes a first image sensor for generating a first sensor output; a first lens for forming a first image of the scene on the first image sensor; a second image sensor for generating a second sensor output; and a zoom lens for forming a second image of the scene on the second image sensor. The camera is contained within an enclosure and, in one variation of the assembly, either the first lens or the zoom lens (or both) forms its image through a folded optical system in which an optical path between the lens and its respective image sensor is folded at an angle in order to conserve space within the enclosure.

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Tokyo, Japan

Peter Labaziewicz