Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica-Minolta Holdings, Inc.

Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc.

Tsutomu Ichikawa

Akihiko Fujino

Kenji Tsuji

Hiroshi Hosomizu

Motoshi Yamaguchi

Masatoshi Yoneyama

Makoto Kamiya

Kenzi Tuzi

Nobuyuki Taniguchi

Shigeto Ohmori

Ichiro Tsujimura

Koutaro Kawabe

Akio Nakamaru

Hiroshi Ueda

Norio Ishikawa

Katsuyuki Nanba

Norihiko Akamatsu

Mashio Kitaura

Masayuki Nakasa

Tatsuya Suzuki

Masayuki Yoshii

Hiroshi Ootsuka

Hiroyuki Okada

Reiji Seki

Hidehiko Fujii

Makoto Akesaka

Atsushi Sumitani

Hiroaki Minami

Yasushi Hasegawa

Atsuhisa Ohno

Takeshi Fukunaga

Keizo Kioku

A head mount display apparatus includes display section; eyepiece optical member for guiding light from display section to eyeball of wearer of the apparatus; and support substrate for supporting eyepiece optical member, support substrate being formed in a shape corresponding to outer shape of edge surfaces of eyepiece optical member and integrated with eyepiece optical member. Herein, edge surfaces of eyepiece optical member include plural slant surfaces in contact with support substrate. The plural slant surfaces include: light reflecting slant surface for reflecting light from display section toward eyeball of wearer, formed such as to be closer to an optical axis, as farther from an eyepiece surface and closer to surface opposite to eyepiece surface; and slant surface, other than reflecting slant surface, formed such as to be farther from the optical axis, as farther from eyepiece surface and closer to surface opposite to eyepiece surface.

Head mount display apparatus

A photocurrent corresponding to the intensity of the light from the subject which photocurrent is successively generated at predetermined intervals is converted into a voltage by being logarithmically compressed by a logarithmic compression circuit in a divisional cell of a metering sensor during the preliminary light emission of the flash immediately before the actual shooting. Then, the voltage level is outputted to a controller as an analog metering signal. The controller A/D converts the successively inputted analog metering signal to generate digital data corresponding to the BV value representative of the brightness of the subject under flash light, and stores the digital data into a RAM. Then, the controller calculates a subject distance for determining the light emission amount of the flash in the actual shooting by performing a digital calculation including an integration calculation of the BV values obtained under ambient light and under flash light.

Image capturing apparatus and image capturing system

A photographing apparatus with a simple mechanism in which an AF sensor is employed as a light adjusting sensor. The apparatus includes a multi-AF sensor having a plurality of detecting areas for receiving light passing through a photographing lens, an AF controller for determining a focus area based upon signals outputted from the multi-AF sensor, and a light emitter for projecting light towards an object to be photographed. Prior to a main flash emission, the light emitter emits light preliminarily. On the basis of signals which are outputted from the detecting areas of the multi-AF sensor and which correspond to a reflected light from the object at time of emitting the preliminary flash light, a suitable area which outputs a suitable signal for photography is selected. On the basis of the signal of the suitable area thus selected, the amount of light of the main flash emission is determined.

Camera having control device for flash photography and its control method

In a camera having an automatic flash light control system, a quantity of flash light illuminating an object is restricted by a value as an upper limit or a lower limit which is calculated by a distance to the object and an aperture value of a taking lens. When there is any factor for affecting the calculation of the value such as a high reflectance of the object, a specific lens system of the taking lens and a position of the flashing unit with respect to the camera, the limit value is compensated or the restriction by the value is release. When the flash light control has completed, the flash light control mode is distinguished by indication manner corresponding to the result of the actual flash light control.

Camera

In a camera system for exposing an image of an object in each frame on a film, an inherent film number is optically exposed in a predetermined region on the film which is disposed before a first frame and not exposed. Furthermore, all frame data such as shutter speed, aperture number, and so on with respect to all frames on the same film are recorded together in a file in a memory card. A name corresponding to the inherent film number is used as a name of the file.

An automatic-focusing camera is provided with a multiple-point distance-measurement device having a plurality of distance-measurement areas, a multiple-division photometry device having a plurality of photometry areas, and a multiple-division light-amount-control device having a plurality of light-amount-control areas. Part of the photometry areas and part of the light-amount-control areas correspond to the distance-measurement areas. When a taking lens is focused on a subject, its focus is locked. Out of the information obtained from the multiple-point distance-measurement device, a set of information obtained when the focus of the taking lens is locked is compared with a set of information obtained immediately before a shot is taken, and thereby a change in picture composition after the locking of the taking lens focus is detected. This makes it possible to achieve exposure control in ambient-light shooting and light amount control in flash shooting in accordance with a change in picture composition. Based on the information obtained from the multiple-point distance-measurement device, the subject and the background are identified, and, in accordance with the distribution of the subject and the background, the reference value to be used to stop emission of illumination light and the contribution ratios of the individual light-amount-control areas relative to the total amount of light received are determined to achieve light amount control in flash shooting.

Automatic focusing camera

A camera is provided with a distance measurement device having a plurality of distance measurement regions and outputting distance measurement information of each distance measurement region, a light adjustment device having a plurality of light adjustment regions including regions substantially coinciding with the distance measurement regions, and an auxiliary light emitting device for emitting auxiliary light in distance measurement. The auxiliary light emitting device emits auxiliary light when low contrast is detected in at least one of the plurality of distance measurement regions. When auxiliary light is emitted, the flash light emission quantity is controlled based on the distance measurement information in auxiliary light emission and an output from the light adjustment device.

A flash device comprising a power source; a main capacitor adapted to be charged by the power source; a flash firing unit operable to consume charge stored in the main capacitor to emit a flash light; a switching unit disposed in a discharge loop for the main capacitor through the flash firing unit; a trigger circuit for exciting the flash firing unit in response to a flash firing command; a pulse output unit, which is operable to output some kinds of pulses, the duty factors of the pulses being different from each other, for inputting a selecting command and For outputting one of the pulses in accordance with the selecting command; and a control unit for causing the switching unit to be switched on and off repeatedly in response to the pulse outputted from the pulse output unit.

Flash device

A camera to which an external flash device may be mounted has a focal length detecting device which detects the focal length of a photo-taking lens, a conversion device which converts the detected focal length information into focal length information having a prescribed relationship to the detected focal length information, and a transmitter which transmits the converted focal length information to the external flash device.

Camera and external flash device

A camera system includes a camera device and a flash device. The camera device has a first mode where a control aperture value and a control shutter speed are automatically determined; and a second mode where the operator is allowed to determine either a control aperture value or a control shutter speed. The flash device is capable of emitting an instantaneous flash light and a prolonged flash light. The camera device includes a distance calculator operable to calculate a distance to an object and a light intensity calculator operable to calculate an intensity of a prolonged flash light for flash photography based on the calculated distance, a focal plane shutter having a front blind and a rear blind, and a controller operable to render the flash device emit a prolonged flash light at the calculated intensity from the start of travel of the front blind to the finish of travel of the rear blind.

Camera system having a flash device capable of performing a high speed

A flash photographing system includes a first firing device operable to fire a first flash light effective for photography of the camera device; a second firing device operable to fire a second flash light ineffective for photography of the camera device, the second firing device having two different emission modes; and a changer operable to change over the two emission modes of the second firing device. The emission modes are changed over in accordance with selection of macro or portrait photography mode. The second flash light consists of intermittently emitted flash lights. The emission modes of the second flash light are different from each other in aspect of the light amount, emitting frequency, number of emitting times, or emitting time.

Remotely-controlled flash photographing system

The oscillating switching element of step-up transformer comprises a dedicated high-frequency FET and is placed between center tap of the primary coil and the ground of the primary circuit. Terminal of the primary coil on the side of the ground is connected to the connection point between xenon tube and the light emission controlling switching element, i.e., an IGBT, via diode. Charge voltage of main capacitor is detected by voltage detection circuit, and when charge voltage is below threshold voltage, controller drives the IGBT at a low frequency, while when charge voltage has exceeded threshold voltage, it drives the FET at a high frequency to charge main capacitor. The charging of main capacitor is made faster and more efficient by changing the switching frequency and by switching the switching element between the IGBT and the FET as charge voltage increases.

Electronic flash device and camera equipped with said device

A camera system capable of wireless flash photographing, comprising a camera and an external flash unit, wherein the external flash unit transmits a discriminating data such as a synchronized shutter speed with a wireless flash photographing, and the camera receives the discriminating data. According to the received data, a phototaking operation of the camera is executed.

Camera system capable of wireless flash photographing

A flash device comprising a power source; a main capacitor adapted to be charged by the power source; a flash firing unit operable to consume charge stored in the main capacitor to emit a flash light; a switching unit disposed in a discharge loop for the main capacitor through the flash firing unit; a trigger circuit for exciting the flash firing unit in response to a flash firing command; a pulse output unit, which is operable to output some kinds of pulses, the duty factors of the pulses being different from each other, for inputting a selecting command and for outputting one of the pulses in accordance with the selecting command; and a control unit for causing the switching unit to be switched on and off repeatedly in response to the pulse outputted from the pulse output unit.

A camera having a built-in electronic flash device and a detachable electronic flash device, provided with a detecting sensor for detecting photographing condition, which judges whether or not a red-eye phenomenon caused by a reflection of flash light on human retinae tends to occur. In accordance with the judgment, activation of both flash devices are controlled.

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Sakai, Japan

Tsutomu Ichikawa