The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 17, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 22, 2001
Yasuhiro Morimoto, Takatsuki, JP;
Takeru Butsuzaki, Sakai, JP;
Kazuhiko Yukawa, late of Sakai, JP;
Hiroaki Kubo, Muko, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
At power-on, a digital camera starts to operate with a display unit off (state S ). At a subsequent half shutter press of a shutter button, a quick return mirror is flipped down and phase difference AF is performed with live view display off (state S ). At a subsequent full press of the shutter button, the digital camera enters an image capture operation. With a quick return mirror in the up position, a focusing lens is moved to its in-focus, front focus and rear focus positions, at each of which contrast in an AF area of predetermined partial portion of an image is obtained for comparison to select a position of the focusing lens with maximum contrast (state S ). Then, image data is obtained and recorded on a memory card (state S ). With the above processing, the digital camera can perform autofocusing, as circumstances demand, by a contrast AF method.