Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporation

Olumpus Corporation

Saori Shimizu

Osamu Nonaka

Yoshinori Matsuzawa

Tetsuo Miyasaka

Katsutoshi Nishiuchi

Acquired is a photographed image with a framing intended by a photographer. There is provided an imaging system including an operation detection unit for detecting a photographing operation by a photographer; an imaging unit for acquiring a through image prior to the photographing operation and acquiring an actually photographed image with a photographing field angle wider than a photographing field angle set by the photographer when the photographing operation is performed; a framing information acquiring unit for acquiring framing information created based on the through image when the photographing operation is performed, and related to framing in time of the photographing operation or immediately before the photographing information; and a trimming unit for trimming the actually photographed image acquired by the imaging unit based on the framing information.

Imaging system, image processing method, and image processing program recording medium using framing information to capture image actually intended by user

A white balance adjustment apparatus comprises an area estimation unit that estimates at least one light, source color estimation area for estimating a light source color in a photographed image, a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance of the light source color estimation area in a depth direction of the photographed image as the distance of the light source color estimation area, a chromaticity calculation unit that calculates a chromaticity of the light source color estimation area, and a white balance adjustment value calculation unit that calculates a white balance adjustment value on the basis of the distance of the light source color estimation area and the chromaticity of the light source color estimation area.

White balance adjustment apparatus, white balance adjustment method, recording medium storing white balance adjustment program and imaging apparatus

An image having the image quality desired by a photographer is provided by minimizing overexposure or underexposure, making the dynamic range wide, and specifying an optimum brightness level for a main subject. An image capturing device includes a subject detecting unit which detects a main subject in an image obtained before actual photographing; a subject luminance information acquiring unit which obtains luminance information; a luminance distribution calculating unit which calculates a luminance distribution of each of multiple areas; a target luminance calculating unit which determines a target luminance; a target luminance correcting unit which corrects the target luminance; and an exposure condition determining unit which determines an exposure condition for the actual photographing, in which the target luminance correcting unit includes a criterial range determining unit which determines the criterial range; and a correction amount determining unit which determines a correction amount by using the difference between the target luminance and the luminance of the main subject.

Image capturing device which corrects a target luminance, based on which an exposure condition is determined

A camera includes a luminance distribution detecting unit, a changing point determining unit, and an exposure controller. The luminance distribution detecting unit detects distribution of brightness in a photographing picture. The changing point determining unit determines a changing point of a bright portion and a dark portion with reference to the distribution of brightness detected by the luminance distribution detecting unit. The exposure controller decides that exposure is to be executed on the bright portion or the dark portion based on a position of the changing point determined by the changing point determining unit.

Camera having proper exposure controlling function

A camera includes a sensor array which can detect a brightness signal of a subject and has a plurality of segments for focal point detection, a first photometry unit for calculating the brightness signal of the subject on the basis of an output of one segment or outputs of the segments of the sensor array, a second photometry unit which can detect a brightness signal of the subject in a detection range wider than that for the detection of the subject brightness signal by the sensor array, and a determination unit for determining on the basis of an output of the second photometry unit whether the use of the first photometry unit is forbidden. The camera can determine backlight without any inconvenience even on photographing condition close to the very limit of a photometrical range.

Camera and wide-angle field distance-measuring camera

The present invention provides a camera which can prevent interruption of the communication operations caused by shortage of battery capacity, during the communication between the camera and an external device such as a personal computer or the like, and which does not require an external power supply during the communication. That is, the present invention relates to a camera which has a built-in power supply, which is capable of making communication with the external device via the communication contact, and which has a body control circuit for detecting whether the external device is connected or not and selecting any one of the built-in power supply and a power supply of the external device in accordance with the result of the detection to supply the power to circuits of the camera.

Camera and camera system

To enable the user of the camera to select, using a simple mechanism, one of a function for simultaneously performing photographing and electronic image pickup, and a function for performing only one of the photographing and the electronic image pickup, the camera incorporates a release button at a position which, for example, the index finger of the right hand can reach, and another button, i.e. a digital button, at a location which the thumb of the right hand can reach. The camera is operated in accordance with a predetermined control program so that the above-described operations can be selectively executed by appropriately operating the release button and the digital button. In other words, the invention provides a camera that permits the user to easily select, using only one hand, only electronic image pickup, only film exposure, or simultaneous execution of both the operations.

Camera

The present invention provides a power supply unit of a camera which efficiently drives a heavy-load system even when a power supply voltage is low and thus drives a heavy-load circuit in a short time in the photographing sequence of the camera without any trouble. The power supply unit includes a charging section for charging a capacitor with a boosted DC power supply voltage, a switching section which receives the output voltage of the charging section and the DC power supply voltage and selectively applies one of these voltages to the heavy-load circuit, and a control section for controlling operations of the switching section and the charging section. The control section controls the switching section such that the output voltage of the charging section is output in the early stage of a time period during which the power supply voltage is being applied to the heavy-load circuit and then the DC power supply voltage is output. The control section also controls the charging section such that the DC power supply voltage is boosted while the DC power supply voltage is being applied to a load.

Growing community of inventors

Koganei, Japan

Saori Shimizu