Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Saburo Nakazato

Masao Suzuki

Masanori Sakai

Toshihiro Kadowaki

Toshio Honma

Yasutomo Suzuki

Yuji Sakaegi

Kan Takaiwa

Izuru Horiuchi

Tetsuya Ohnishi

Yoshiyuki Mizoguchi

Takayuki Komine

Masashi Hori

Norio Nakajima

An image pickup apparatus which is capable of forming an image signal having a high resolution when a monotone image is photographed by a structure having a switching circuit for switching between a first photographing mode in which an electric signal transmitted from an image pickup device is used to form a color natural image signal and a second photographing mode for forming a high resolution image signal of a monochrome object to insert/remove an optical low pass filter in accordance with the switching operation, wherein the length of the optical passage is corrected by another optical system.

Image pickup apparatus capable of taking color natural images and high-resolution images of a monochrome object

An image pickup apparatus is provided with a standard-resolution photographing mode for performing photography with a standard resolution and a high-resolution photographing mode for performing photography with a high resolution. In the image pickup apparatus, when the high-resolution photographing mode is selected, an optical low-pass filter is retracted from an optical path and a fixed iris is inserted into the optical path to prevent a degradation in image quality.

Image pickup apparatus having standard-resolution and high-resolution

A recording apparatus for recording onto a recording medium for each unit of block, with a unit of block being image data representing one picture, comprising a compression circuit for variably setting a compression ratio in the compression processing which is applied to the image data, in accordance with the supply timing for the above unit of block corresponding to the continuous mode, and an error correction adding circuit for variably setting the way of attaching error correction codes which are added to the above data, in accordance with the compression ratio being set as above.

Recording apparatus having variably settable compression ratio

An image pickup device having a solid-state image pickup element, and a memory for storing a signal read from said solid-state image pickup element, in which there are provided first and second clock pulse generation circuits for generating the clock pulse having respective predetermined frequencies, and a switch circuit for switching the clock pulse depending on whether said solid-state image pickup element is operating or not, is characterized in that when said solid-state image pickup element is operating, the processing pulse for each portion is generated based on the clock pulse generated in either one of said first and second clock pulse generation circuits, and when said solid-state image pickup element is not operating, the processing pulse for each portion is generated based on the clock pulse generated in the other clock pulse generation circuit.

Image pickup apparatus

A digital electronic camera has a first stroke switch and a second stroke switch. When the first stroke switch is pressed, adjustment of focus, coarse adjustment of exposure and detection of light-source flicker are detected using a signal from an image sensing device such as a CCD. When the second stroke switch is pressed, main exposure is performed in accordance with the conditions that have been set. Thus, adjustment of focus and exposure can be performed by relying solely upon the image sensing device and without using various sensors. Moreover, processing is completed in a short period of time by the second stroke switch, which is pressed following the first stroke switch. As a result, focus and exposure adjustments can be carried out in a short period of time using solely an image sensing device without relying upon a rangefinder sensor and photometric sensor, and release time lag can be reduced.

Image sensing apparatus and method with exposure performed based on

A video signal recording apparatus having: an image pickup sensor having a plurality of pixels two-dimensionally disposed by a predetermined interval in horizontal and vertical directions, pixels being shifted alternately for each horizontal line; a recording circuit for recording a signal read by the image pickup sensor on a recording medium; a switch member for instructing which one of a moving image and a still image is to be generated; and a control circuit for controlling generation of one of the moving image and the still image in accordance with an instruction by the switch member, wherein upon an instruction of the moving image, pixel signals on two adjacent horizontal lines of the image pickup sensor are read in a zigzag manner as first field signals, and pixel signals on two adjacent horizontal lines shifted in the vertical direction from the first-mentioned two adjacent horizontal lines are read in the zigzag manner as second field signals, the first and second field signals being recorded on the recording medium, and wherein upon an instruction of the still image, the first field signals are read and recorded in the recording medium and temporarily stored in a memory, and after reading the first field signals, the first field signals stored in the memory are read as the second field signals and read and recorded in the recording medium.

Video signal recording apparatus

An image signal processor for processing an image signal corresponding to an object image. An object is imaged to form an object image, and a plurality of pixel signals corresponding to the object image are input. A brightness signal and color-difference signals are formed by using the input pixel signals, and the pixel signals or the formed brightness and color-difference signals are stored. Also, brightness and color-difference signals are formed by using the pixel signals corresponding to the object image or the stored pixel signals. The brightness and color-difference signals formed from the input pixel signals or the stored brightness and color-difference signals are output. The apparatus is thus simply arranged to be capable of forming a frame image signal.

Apparatus for recording image signal controllable in two modes of

An image processing system including: a reproducing apparatus to reproduce a plurality of image signals recorded on a recording medium; and an image forming apparatus to form the image signals of a plurality of picture planes which were read out of the reproducing apparatus as a plurality of visible images. The reproducing apparatus and the image forming apparatus process the plurality of image signals, while communicating with each other via a wire. With this system, since the image recording and reproducing apparatus can be preferably controlled on the image forming apparatus side, the image forming apparatus can be provided in a portable small image recording and reproducing apparatus such as an electronic still camera which executes an electrophotographic image process.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Saburo Nakazato