Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd.

Other

Takao Umetsu

Haruo Onozuka

Minoru Ishiguro

Junichi Iwamoto

Michihiro Shiina

Muneyoshi Sato

Kunihiko Tanaka

Yutaka Yoshida

Yoshihiro Fujita

Kazuhisa Horikiri

Nobuyuki Kameyama

Yasuhiko Tanaka

Tatsuo Saito

Hiroshi Komatsuzaki

Fumio Iwai

Minoru Takahashi

Yasuhiro Nishitani

Yukio Noguchi

Toru Ito

Katsuji Ozawa

Takao Koda

Tetuo Nishizawa

Makoto Akiba

Noboru Shimada

Hideto Shirane

Yukio Okazaki

Tuyoshi Masaoka

Shunji Nishimura

Muneyoshi Saitoh

Yashuhiro Nishitani

Ysuyoshi Masaoka

Modes of a camera are classified into groups according to their type. On an LCD panel, the different groups are displayed on different rows, and modes to be selected out of each group are displayed in different columns. Group selection is accomplished by vertically manipulating a selector button, and mode selection out of each group is accomplished by laterally manipulating the selector button. This makes possible displaying of selectable modes classified by group on the LCD panel in a way perceivable at a glance. Furthermore, the choice of a group and that of a mode within each group are matched in the mode display arrangement to facilitate the operation for mode selection.

Camera having LCD panel displaying groups of camera modes

In a camera having an LCD and a clock device, a power source consists of a battery and a booster circuit. When a power switch button is pressed, the camera moves to an ON mode including a drive mode and a standby mode. In the drive mode, the booster circuit is continuously turned on to supply voltage of a predetermined high level. In the standby mode, the booster circuit is intermittently turned on to output voltage of between the predetermined high level and a minimum display voltage level that is necessary for the LCD to keep its display density in a proper range. The booster circuit is normally turned off in an OFF mode. But if the battery voltage goes below a reset level below which a clock device of the camera cannot work, the booster circuit is intermittently turned on in the OFF mode, to boost the battery voltage up above the reset level and drive the clock device by the output voltage of the booster circuit.

Method of controlling power source of camera

A camera with a magnetic recording device that may record optional data on a magnetic recording layer of a photo filmstrip while the photo filmstrip is advanced by one frame after each exposure. The optional data is print number data designating the number of copies to print from a picture frame and/or caption data designating a content and a language of a caption to print with a picture frame. The optional data is selectable by photographers for each picture frame by operating a multi-operation button when the camera is put in a mode set-up standby stage upon a shift switch being turned on by pushing a shift button. The multi-operation button is virtually divided into four sections. The camera is put in a print number setting mode when one of the sections that is provided with a mark indicating the print number setting mode, is pressed in the mode set-up standby stage. The camera is put in a caption setting mode when another section that is provided with a mark indicating the caption setting mode, is pressed in the mode set-up stage. The print number data or the caption data as selected in the print number setting mode or the caption setting mode is stored in a RAM, and read out from the RAM when the magnetic recording device records it on the magnetic recording layer.

Camera with magnetic recording device

A zoom camera has a push button switch that is constituted of a single disc virtually radially divided into sections, and switches disposed behind the sections one by one. The single disc is supported in a center such that the single disc tilts in a different direction when pushed at one of the sections, and returns to a horizontal state by a spring force. One of the switches is actuated to output a signal when a corresponding one of the sections is pushed. The push button switch doubles as a mode setting operation member and a zooming operation member. When the mode setting operation is designated by a manually operable switch, the signals from the switches are used for the mode setting. Otherwise, the signals from the switches are used for zooming.

Zoom camera, mode set up device and control method for zoom camera

A preparatory winding type camera wherein one frame is rewound after the whole film in the patrone is previously wound up, and thereafter, the film is automatically rewound into a patrone frame after frame each time a shutter release is performed. During the winding of the film at the time of the preparatory winding processing, a central processing unit causes a liquid crystal display device (LCD) to display the number of film frames always smaller one frame than the normal display, and, when one frame is rewound after the whole film in the patrone is wound up, the number of film frames currently displayed on the LCD is maintained as it is. With this arrangement, the number of film frames displayed on the LCD can avoid the up-down fluctuations during the preparatory winding processing.

Preparatory winding type camera

A central processing unit (CPU) is reset during the removal of a battery or the voltage drop, while, in an electrically erasable/programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), there is stored and held information of the camera operation immediately before the reset and the number of film frames. Then, when the CPU becomes operable by the exchange of batteries and the like, the information of camera operation immediately before the reset and the number of film frames are read out from the EEPROM during the processing at the initial stage thereafter, the operations corresponding to the information of camera operation is continued and the number of film frames thus read out is changed by one and set as the film count value when the information of camera operation indicates one frame delivery. With this arrangement, the interrupted frame delivery is also counted as one frame, so that the final frame is prevented from entering a photographing preventing region of a film.

Camera

A self-photographing method for an autofocus camera, wherein, upon depression of a shutter release button, the subject distance data are detected a plurality of times at periodic intervals, and a predetermined exposure operation, that is, an actual shutter release operation is automatically executed using the autofocus system when the detected subject distance data have changed from each other. The distance data are repeatedly detected and compared with each other until these distance data differ from each other. If the distance data have been equal for a predetermined time interval from the shutter release button depression, then the actual shutter release operation is executed, or is called off and the self-photographing is terminated. It is preferred that the detected change of distance be a decrease of distance, indicating that the photographer has stepped into the picture, whereupon the measured distance becomes his distance in place of the background distance.

Self-photographing method for cameras

A variable focal length camera is provided with a built-in flash unit having a wide illuminating angle, and an external flash unit having a narrower illuminating angle can be externally attached to the camera. When the taking lens is set in a short focal length region, the external flash unit is used for pre-emission prior to an exposure so as to prevent the red-eye phenomenon, and a built-in flash unity is used for main-emission during the exposure. When the taking lens is set in a long focal length region, the built-in flash unit is used for the pre-emission and the external flash unit is used for the main-emission.

Flash control method and apparatus for variable focal length camera

Continuous photography control for a camera wherein an autofocus system is provided, and a motor is used commonly to move a taking lens for focusing and to open and close a shutter for exposure. When a mode switch is operated to set a continuous photography mode wherein plural exposures are continuously performed, the motor is driven to move the taking lens from an initial position into an in-focus position that is determined by the autofocus system and, thereafter, to open and close the shutter a selected number of times while maintaining the taking lens in the in-focus position. The taking lens is returned to the initial position after the selected number of exposures are performed. Alternatively, when another mode switch is operated to set a photography mode wherein only a single exposure is performed per one depression of the shutter button, then the taking lens is moved from the initial position to the in-focus position; the shutter is opened and closed only once; and then the taking lens is moved back to the initial position.

Method and apparatus for controlling continuous photography

A zoom lens is zoomed selectively in either of two opposite directions by a motor which is rotated by a driver. First and second zoom switches cause the zoom lens to move at a higher speed. Third and fourth zoom switches cause the zoom lens to move at a lower speed for precisely stopping the zoom lens. A CPU connected to the four switches controls a zoom motor to rotate selectively at higher and lower speeds. The first and third zoom switches cause the zoom lens to move in the direction of telephotography, while the second and fourth zoom switches cause the zoom lens to move in the direction of wide-angle photography. In order to keep the speed of the zoom lens unchanged despite the difference in its direction, an electric current of a larger electric power is applied to the motor for rotation in the direction that requires more work.

Zooming control apparatus for a camera

A lens position detecting device comprises at least two columns of contacts each having a plurality of contacts, the columns being disposed side by side, and a brush having a plurality of brush segments each for contacting the contacts of the corresponding one of the columns and detecting a voltage at a contact thereof. Each contact of one column is shifted by a predetermined amount from the contacts of an adjacent column. The voltage at one contact is different from that at another contact of the same column, and these different voltages detectable at the contacts of one column constitute the same group as for the other columns. The lens position is determined depending on the combination of at least two voltages detected through the brush segments. The lens positions are thus divisible into a greater number of increments at the same time that the device is composed of a smaller number of elements.

Lens position detecting device for camera

A battery operated camera having a zoom lens in which film advance is controlled by counting pulse signals generated by film perforations and a first film frame is automatically placed in an exposure aperture when the film is loaded. The camera is set to an initial operation mode upon the battery being replaced. The initial operation mode is cleared in cooperation with shutter release when the camera is in the initial operation mode, so as to avoid an advance of several frames upon replacing the batter. A switch is provided in association with the lens barrier, and conditions of the switch are read upon replacing the battery so as to retract the zoom lens when a switch condition indicating that the lens barrier is closed is read or to extend the zoom lens when a switch condition indicating that the lens barrier is open is read. A data recording unit is provided and consists of liquid crystal segments for forming digits to be recorded, the liquid crystal segments being controlled to make all the segments visible for a predetermined time period upon loading of a new battery.

Photographic camera

A controller recognizes the requirement for taking a scenic picture when a scenic picture-taking button is operated to indicate that a scene to be photographed is at infinity rather than at the longest focusable distance of an automatic focusing device, and then sets a taking lens system at an infinity focusing lens position, overriding the automatic focusing device. At the same time, when the scene at infinity is darker than a predetermined brightness level, the controller sets a shutter to open for a predetermined night photography exposure time which is greater than the maximum exposure time that could be set by an automatic exposure control device. When taking a night photograph, light emission from a strobe is prevented.

Camera with night photography apparatus

A camera includes a taking lens system changeable in focal length between at least a short focal length suitable for wide-angle photography and a long focal length suitable for telephotography. The lens system is held in a lens barrel which is axially displaced by means of a motor to change the lens system between at least the two different focal lengths. The camera is provided with a controller for sequentially controlling the motor to move the lens barrel in one axial direction so as to change the lens system to have one of the different focal lengths selected by a focal length selecting switch, to move the lens barrel in the opposite axial direction when the lens barrel does not reach a position wherein the taking lens system has the selected focal length in a predetermined time period, and to stop when the lens barrel reaches the position wherein the taking lens system has another one of the different focal lengths. For detecting the lens barrel at the axial position where the taking lens system has the different focal lengths, the camera is provided with a detector for detecting an unusual motion of the lens barrel in cooperation with the controller.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Takao Umetsu