JP3034893B2 - Information recording device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information recording apparatus, and more particularly, to an information recording apparatus having a recording mode / non-recording mode.

[Prior Art] In an information recording apparatus such as a conventional electronic still camera or a video camera having a recording and reproducing function, a predetermined function is used when a reproducing mode or an erasing mode state shifts to a recording mode state or the like. Unit, for example, if it has an autofocus function, it has an autofocus (hereinafter referred to as AF) lens drive unit of a focus lens which is a photographing lens, and if it has a built-in attachment lens, its attachment lens drive unit etc. Is shifted to a predetermined preparation state necessary for the photographing operation.

In a conventional video camera device, a normal recording operation is performed at the time of rising from the power-off state. Therefore, during a rising time of an element or a related element that requires a long time to start operation, such as an image pickup tube, the recording operation is performed. Has been done to allow the transition to the next other operating step for the early start of.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional camera, once the mode is shifted to the non-recording mode such as the reproduction mode, when returning to the recording mode for photographing again, first, the focus lens is used. It is necessary to return to the initial reference position for focusing for AF operation.In addition, if the camera has a built-in attachment lens, when performing normal shooting, move the lens to the inoperative position (retract from the optical path). Position).

Driving these lenses and the like takes a relatively long time, and if it is necessary to set the camera to the immediate shooting state, timing may be bad, and a situation such as missing a shutter opportunity may occur. There is.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problem, when switching to a recording mode, it is possible to shorten the time until the start of a recording operation, miss a shutter chance, or miss the timing of recording start. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information recording device which does not cause the problem described above.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] An information recording apparatus according to the present invention includes a photographing lens including a focus lens, an image sensor for photoelectrically converting a subject image formed by the photographing lens, A lens driving unit for driving the focus lens; a recording mode and at least one non-recording mode as operation modes; and a mode switching unit for switching the operation mode. The focus lens is driven to an initial reference position in response to switching from a recording mode to a non-recording mode by the mode switching means.

Further, another information recording apparatus according to the present invention includes a photographing lens for forming a subject image, an image sensor for photoelectrically converting the subject image formed by the photographing lens, and an operation position on a photographing optical path. A macro lens movable between a retractable position and a retract position outside the photographing optical path; a macro lens driving unit for driving the macro lens; and a recording mode and at least one non-recording mode as operation modes. Mode switching means for switching the operation mode, wherein the macro lens driving means, when the macro lens is in the operating position in the recording mode,
The macro lens is driven to a retracted position in accordance with switching from a recording mode to a non-recording mode by the mode switching means.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on the illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electronic still camera as an information recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a CPU 1 is a system controller that controls the camera. First, photographic light of the subject 22 is captured via a photographic lens, and forms an image on the photoelectric conversion surface of the CCD 10, which is a solid-state imaging device. The focusing lens 2 which is the above-described photographing lens and is driven to be focused is focused by an AF lens actuator 3 based on a driving signal of the CPU 1. The actuator 3 is constituted by a step motor or the like. Then, the output of the lens initial position sensor 9 at the initial reference position of the focus lens 2 gives reference position data for focusing to the CPU 1. In the drawing, the focus lens 2 indicates the reference position, and the focus lens 2 'indicates the position of the focusing operation.

Macro lens 6 which is an inner attachment lens
Is driven from a retracted position retracted outside the photographing optical path by a macro lens actuator 7 controlled by the CPU 1 to an operation position (the position of the macro lens 6 'in FIG. 1) which is a photographing position on the photographing optical path. Note that a driving means such as a DC motor is used for the actuator 7.
At each of the positions described above, a macro lens retreat position sensor 4 and an action position sensor 5, which are inner attachment lens position recognizing means, are provided, and their outputs are input to the CPU 1. Further, those sensors are constituted by photo sensors and the like.

The output of the distance measuring sensor 8 composed of a one-dimensional CCD or the like is input to the CPU 1 and used as distance measuring information for focusing.

The imaging signal photoelectrically converted by the CCD 10 is subjected to amplification and processing by an imaging circuit 11 and further FM-modulated by a modulation circuit 12 to form a recording / reproduction amplification circuit.
Entered into 13. The amplifying circuit 13 switches between recording and reproduction in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 1, and outputs a recording signal to a magnetic recording / reproducing head of a floppy disk drive 14 during recording. At the time of reproduction, the reproduced signal read by the magnetic recording / reproducing head is amplified and demodulated by the demodulation circuit 15.
Output to

The video reproduction signal demodulated by the demodulation circuit 15 is output to a display device (not shown). The reproduced output of the demodulation circuit 15 is also detected by an envelope detection circuit 16, and the output is input to the CPU 1 as recorded / unrecorded information indicating whether or not a video signal is recorded on a corresponding track on a recording medium. You.

Note that the CPU 1 controls the drive spindle motor of the drive 14 and the drive control of the recording / reproducing head. Also, from the drive 14, a detection signal indicating presence / absence of an insertion medium or presence / absence of a claw of a medium case is provided.
Input to CPU1. The CPU 1 also outputs to the demodulation circuit 15 a mute signal during reproduction of an unrecorded track during reproduction or access to a track of a reproduction unnecessary part.

Among the operation switches, a release switch (hereinafter, referred to as a switch) 17 is for instructing execution of shooting, and an up switch 18 and a down switch 19 are used for incrementing or decrementing a reproduction track of a magnetic recording medium during reproduction. Make instructions. The macro switch SW20 is for instructing to move the macro lens 6 to the working position for performing macro shooting, or to retract the macro lens 6 to the non-working position for performing normal shooting, respectively. The above instruction is switched every time the SW is pressed.
Further, the recording / reproduction mode switch SW21 switches the processing operation to a recording mode when the switch is turned on, and switches to a reproduction mode which is a non-recording mode when turned off.
The outputs of these switches are all input to the CPU 1, and the respective operation instruction data is captured.

The photographing, recording, and reproduction processing operations of the camera of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. In addition,
As described above, the camera has two operation modes: a recording mode for performing photographing and recording, and a reproduction mode for outputting a reproduction signal of a recording video signal which is a non-recording mode. The above-mentioned recording / non-recording mode is intended for the operation mode during operation, and is not intended for the operation in the recording / non-recording mode at the time of rising from the power-off state.

In the present camera, prior to the operation switching to the recording mode, that is, in the present embodiment, at the time of transition to the reproduction mode, or at the time of transition to the recording mode, a predetermined functional unit having a relatively long response time, , AF lens actuator 3 or macro lens actuator 7
Drives the focus lens 2 or the macro lens 6 to a position in a predetermined setting state for starting recording.
That is, the focus lens 2 is driven to the initial reference position, and the macro lens 6 is driven to the retracted position outside the photographing optical path (the processing in steps S14 and S17 in FIG. 2).

The recording / reproducing process of this camera will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, first, in step S11, it is determined whether the first to 50th tracks are recorded or unrecorded by the output of the envelope detection circuit 16. This is performed based on the signal. Then, in step S12, the recording / playback mode switch SW21 is checked.
6. If it is off, go to step S13.

In step S16, the current setting mode is determined. If the mode is the recording mode, the process jumps to step S18 to execute the recording process. On the other hand, if the mode is not the recording mode, the process proceeds to step S17. In this step S17, a subroutine for a transition process from the reproduction mode to the recording mode is called, and after performing the process, subsequently, a subroutine process for the recording process in step S18 is executed.

When the process proceeds to step S13, it is checked whether or not the current mode is the reproduction mode. Then, in the case of the reproduction mode, the process directly jumps to step S15, and in the case of the recording mode, the process proceeds to step S14. Then, step S14
In, the subroutine process of the transition process from the recording mode to the reproduction mode is executed, and the process proceeds to the subroutine process of the reproduction process in step S15. After the end of each of the processes in steps S15 and S18, it is checked in step S19 whether or not there is an instruction to stop the recording / reproducing process. If there is no instruction, the process returns to step S12. To end.

Next, the processing of each of the above subroutines will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 shows a subroutine for transition from the recording mode to the reproduction mode, which is called in step S14. This routine includes a process of driving the above-described predetermined function unit to a predetermined set position. First, in step S21,
In order to check the position of the macro lens 6, it is determined whether the retreat position sensor 4 is on or off.
Jump to S25. If it is off, steps S22, S23, S
At 24, the macro lens 6 is driven by the actuator 7 to the retracted position and stopped. Then, step S25
Then, the focus lens 2 is continuously driven by the AF lens actuator 3 to the initial reference position for focusing (see FIG. 7).

Thereafter, the spindle motor of the floppy disk drive 14 is started, and its rotation speed is increased to 3600 rpm (step S26). Then, the recording / reproducing head is moved to the position of the first track (step S27), and it is checked whether or not the track has been recorded. If the track has been recorded, the mute signal is turned off to cancel the mute (step S28). , S29), and terminates this subroutine.

FIG. 4 is a subroutine of a transition process from the reproduction mode to the recording mode called in the above-described step S17, and includes a process of driving a predetermined functional unit to a predetermined set position, similarly to the above subroutine. First, the mute signal is turned on, and the demodulation circuit 15 is set to the mute operation state (step S31). Then, in step S32, the drive
The 14th spindle motor is stopped, and the read / write head is made to access an unrecorded track (step S3).
3). Subsequently, in step S34, to check the position of the macro lens 6, it is determined whether the retreat position sensor 4 is on or off. If it is on, the process jumps to step S38. If it is off, the macro lens 6 is driven by the actuator 7 to the retracted position and stopped at steps S35, S36 and S37.

Subsequently, in steps S38 to S41, a process of moving the focus lens 2 to the focusing initial reference position is performed. This operation is the same as that in step S25, but will be described in more detail. First, it is determined whether the lens initial position sensor 9 is on or off.
In FIG. 7, when the lens 2 is located to the left of step 0 to step 0, the process proceeds to step S42.
Is to the right of step 0, the process proceeds to step S39 (step S38). In step S42, focus lens 2
Are continuously driven until the initial reference position sensor 9 is turned off (step S43), and the process returns to step S38 when the initial reference position sensor 9 is turned off. It is. In this operation, in the final initial positioning operation, the lens 2 is always moved from the right side in FIG.
This is for driving to the step position and setting it correctly. On the other hand, in step S39, lens 2 is set to -1.
Driving is performed continuously step by step (in FIG. 7, one step to the left) until the sensor 9 is turned on (step S40). Then, the lens 2 has 0 steps, that is,
Driving is stopped when the initial reference position is reached. This 0
The state of the step position is registered in the CPU 1 as the initial reference position of the focus lens 2 (step S41), and the present subroutine ends.

Next, the reproduction processing subroutine called in step S15 (see FIG. 2) will be described with reference to FIG. In step S51, ON / OFF determination of the up switch 18 is performed, and further, in step S52, ON / OFF determination of the down switch 19 is performed to select an access direction of the recording / reproducing head.
When the up switch 18 is on, the process jumps to step S57. When the down switch 19 is on, the process proceeds to step S53. If both SW18 and SW19 are off, step S
Jump to 61 and play the video signal.

In step S57, the mute signal is turned on, the demodulation circuit 15 is set in the mute state, and the current head access position is checked (step S58).
If the track is the 50th track, the process jumps to step S56. If the track has not reached the 50th track, the head is moved by +1 track, and the process proceeds to step S56. On the other hand, in step S53, mute-on processing is performed as in step S57, and in step S54, the current head access track is checked. If it is the first track, the process jumps to step S56. If it is not the first track, the head is moved by -1 track in step S55, and the process jumps to step S56.

In step S56, if the track is a recorded track, the mute signal is turned off in step S60 to release the mute, and the process proceeds to step S61.
In step S61, the video signal of the track is reproduced, and the subroutine ends.

Next, a recording subroutine called in step S18 (see FIG. 2) will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S71, the on / off state of the release SW 17 for photographing is checked. If the release switch 17 is on, the process jumps to step S72, and if it is off, the process jumps to step S77. In step S72, the spindle motor is started. Subsequently, distance measurement is performed by the distance measurement sensor 8 (step S73), and the focus lens 2 is driven to a focus position based on the distance measurement data (step S74). Then, imaging and recording are performed in step S75, the spindle motor is stopped (step S76), and this routine ends.

On the other hand, the processing after step S77 is the macro lens 6
In step S77, the on / off state of the macro switch SW20 for instructing macro shooting is checked, and if the macro switch SW20 is off, this routine ends. If it is on (at the time of macro shooting), the macro lens retreat position sensor 4 and the operation position sensor 5 are checked in steps S78 and S79. If the sensor 4 is off and the sensor 5 is on, the macro lens 6 is already in the operation position. If there is, this routine is terminated. Also, the sensor 4 is turned on or the sensor 5
Is off, the macro lens 6 is driven until the sensor 5 is turned on in steps S80 and S81. Then, when the macro lens 6 reaches the operation position, the drive of the macro lens 6 is stopped, this routine ends, and the process returns to the recording / reproducing processing routine.

As described above, in the camera of the present embodiment, before the recording processing routine is called, the initial reference position where the focus lens 2 and the macro lens 6 are easily started for the recording operation, or the retracted position. It is moved to a position or the like, and then the recording process is executed. Therefore, in the recording processing operation, the driving time to the initial position having the relatively long response time is not required, and based on the signal of the release SW17,
A shutter operation with a very short waiting time can be performed.

In the above-described embodiment, the drive unit of the focus lens or the macro lens is applied as the predetermined functional unit having a relatively long response time at the start of the recording operation. Can also be applied. Further, the driving unit can be applied to an electric control circuit or the like, and a camera having more responsiveness can be realized. In addition, although only the reproduction mode is used as the non-recording mode, the present invention can be applied to an erasing mode and the like. Shooting becomes possible.

In this embodiment, the reference structure of the sensor is such that the initial position sensor of the focus lens, the retracted position sensor of the macro lens, and the operation position sensor fix the photosensor unit and detect the position of a reflector provided on the movable unit. With such a structure, a relative structure may be adopted in which the reflection plate or the like is fixed and the photosensor portion is held on the movable side to detect the relative movement amount.

Further, the above-described embodiment is applied to an electronic still camera, but the present invention is widely applied to various recording apparatuses in which it is desirable that the above-mentioned predetermined functional unit is in a setting state in which a recording operation is easily started. It is effective. Therefore, a recording signal generating unit such as a video camera or an image pickup unit is not provided by itself, but can be applied to a recording / reproducing apparatus capable of receiving a recording signal input from an external input and recording the signal. . In this case, the predetermined function unit is not a driving unit of the photographing lens but a recording control driving unit.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, when the mode is switched to the recording mode, the waiting time with respect to the start of the recording operation can be reduced as much as possible, and the delay of the recording timing is reduced, so that a shutter chance is missed. Alternatively, it is possible to provide an information recording apparatus having a remarkable effect such that a trouble such as a recording start timing being missed does not occur.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic still camera as an information recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a recording / reproducing processing routine for recording / reproducing operation of the camera of FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine for transition from the recording mode to the reproduction mode for the recording / reproduction operation of the camera of FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the recording / reproduction operation of the camera of FIG. 1; FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a transition process from the reproduction mode to the recording mode, FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a reproduction process for the recording / reproduction operation of the camera of FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is a camera of the camera of FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a recording process for the recording / reproducing operation of FIG. 7; It is a diagram illustrating a change in the output of the location sensor. 1. CPU (built-in means for setting a predetermined function unit to a predetermined setting state) 3 .... AF lens actuator (predetermined function unit) 7. Macro lens actuator (predetermined function unit) 21 .. Recording / Play mode switch (record mode and non-record mode switch)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An imaging device for photoelectrically converting a subject image formed by the imaging lens; a lens driving unit for driving the focus lens; and an operation mode. A recording mode and at least one non-recording mode, and mode switching means for switching the operation mode. The lens driving means switches the recording mode to the non-recording mode by the mode switching means. An information recording apparatus characterized in that the information processing apparatus drives the focus lens to an initial reference position accordingly. 2. A photographing lens for forming a subject image, an image pickup device for photoelectrically converting the subject image formed by the photographing lens, an operation position on a photographing optical path, and retreating outside the photographing optical path. A macro lens movable between the retracted position, a macro lens driving means for driving the macro lens, and a recording mode and at least one non-recording mode as operation modes for switching the operation mode. The macro lens driving means, when the macro lens is in the operating position in the recording mode, the macro lens driving means switches the macro mode in response to switching from the recording mode to the non-recording mode by the mode switching means. An information recording device for driving a lens to a retracted position.