JP4785664B2 - Imaging device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an imaging device.

Imaging devices, particularly digital still cameras (hereinafter simply referred to as “cameras”), tend to be newly added in recent years, in addition to having many camera functions compared to silver halide cameras. For this reason, operations for setting various parameters of various functions of the camera by the user have increased, which is complicated. Therefore, a machine technology is known in which various setting data is stored in a storage medium such as a memory card, and the setting data is easily transferred to another camera by attaching the storage medium to another camera (for example, patents). Reference 1).
JP 7-79375 A

However, with the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, setting data that is to be transferred to another camera cannot be selected from the setting data. Therefore, it has been difficult to exchange setting data between different types of cameras that do not have common setting data items.
The present onset Ming is intended to be able to provide to other imaging device user setting item information including information on a plurality of items that can be set by the user.

An imaging apparatus according to the present invention is an imaging apparatus to which a first storage medium is connected, and user setting item information including information on a plurality of items that can be set by a user is connected to the imaging apparatus. One of the plurality of initialization processes, comprising: a control unit that controls to be stored in the first storage medium; and an initialization unit that performs an initialization process selected from the plurality of initialization processes. Is a first initialization process for initializing the first storage medium so that the user setting item information stored in the first storage medium is deleted from the first storage medium. One of the plurality of initialization processes is the first storage medium after the user setting item information stored in the first storage medium is stored in the second storage medium in the imaging apparatus. Is initialized and stored in the second storage medium The user setting item information is said first second initialization process to ensure the initialization is stored in the first storage medium after being made of the storage medium.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the user setting item information containing the information regarding the some item which can be set by a user can be provided also to another imaging device .

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an internal configuration of a digital still camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  1, the digital still camera includes an imaging unit 100, a buffer memory 101, an image processing unit 102, a buffer memory 103, and an operation unit 104. In addition, a display unit 105, a display control unit 106, a system control unit 107, an interface 108, and a user setting item storage control unit 110 are provided. These components are connected to each other via a system bus. The digital still camera is configured so that a removable external storage medium 109 such as a compact flash (registered trademark) can be mounted, and the external storage medium 109 is connected to the interface 108.

The image pickup unit 100 includes an image pickup element such as a CCD or CMOS necessary for shooting, an optical member such as a lens, and various electronic devices. The buffer memory 101 is a pre-buffer that stores captured image data. The image processing unit 102 performs image processing and image compression on the image data stored in the buffer memory 101. The buffer memory 103 is a post-buffer that stores image data after image processing and image compression. The operation unit 104 performs operations of the digital still camera body such as a shooting operation, a switching operation of shutter speed, exposure, and the like. The display unit 105 displays a captured image display, a menu display for setting and confirming camera operation parameters, a warning, and the like. The display control unit 106 controls display on the display unit 105. A system control unit 107 controls the entire digital still camera. The user setting item storage control unit 110 stores all user setting items that can be set by the user using the operation unit 104, and performs control for selectively storing these user setting items in the external storage medium 109. Do.

  The digital still camera includes an in-camera storage area that stores a file of user setting items that can be set by the user as an internal storage medium. This in-camera storage area may be composed of a plurality of non-volatile memories that divide and store a file of user setting items that can be set by the user. Further, it may be composed of a single nonvolatile memory that stores all user setting item files that can be set by the user.

  As shown in FIG. 2, user setting items that can be set by the user include items necessary for shooting (basic setting items). For example, shutter speed, shooting mode, photometry mode, drive mode (single shooting, continuous shooting, self-timer), ISO value, correction value, ISO bracket, AE bracket, white balance bracket, and the like. The user setting items also include a color matrix and development parameters (tone curve, sharpness, contrast, etc.) necessary for development. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the user setting items are specific to the product. As shown in FIG. 2, the photographed image confirmation, photographed image confirmation time, noise reduction function, manual white balance data, highlight warning display, AF frame Including the display of. Furthermore, it includes items of histogram display type, auto power off time, image backup function, vertical and horizontal automatic rotation display, LCD monitor brightness, supported language, video output method, and other custom function functions.

  Custom function functions include finder display during release, ISO sensitivity expansion mode, dial function assignment, setting stage number switching, display panel display content switching, correction order switching in bracket shooting, and AF frame superimpose settings. Including. Also included are switching between mirror-up shooting and normal shooting, setting for spot metering, setting for strobe, button setting for moving to the home position, button setting for the new lens, subject tracking sensitivity with AI servo, and the like.

  Personal function functions include custom function registration, shooting mode limitation, photometry mode limitation, and photometry mode during manual exposure. It also includes the upper and lower limits of shutter speed, the upper and lower limits of aperture value, registration and switching of shooting modes and metering modes, and the number of shots during repeated bracketing during continuous shooting. In addition, holding program shift amount, prohibiting focus detection by lens driving, prohibiting AF auxiliary light / projection, focusing, automatic focusing, automatic AF frame selection prohibition, continuous shooting speed, number of shots during continuous shooting, Includes quiet operation when the shutter button is off. It also includes setting various timer holding times, continuation of display panel illumination in the bulb, setting for data clearing, speeding up the release time lag, and reversing the setting direction of the electronic dial. Also included is a setting for prohibiting exposure correction by the sub electronic dial, a setting for enabling the sub electronic dial switch for the main dial switch, a load setting for original image determination data, and the like.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure of the user setting item storage process executed by the user setting item storage control unit 110 in FIG.

  In FIG. 3, first, the user displays a setting item menu on the display unit 105 by operating the operation unit 104, and the user setting item to be saved is selected by the user (step S101). Here, the free space in the storage area of the external storage medium 109 is confirmed (step S102), and it is determined whether there is sufficient free space (step S103).

  As a result of the determination in step S103, when there is sufficient free space, the user setting item storage control unit 110 extracts the user setting item selected in step S101, and stores a nonvolatile memory (FIG. (Step S104). Next, the user setting item storage control unit 110 creates a file in which the extracted user setting items are stored in the form of a structure for camera setting items (step S105). Then, it is determined whether or not there is a file in which the user setting item is already stored in the external storage medium 109 (step S106). As the format of the structure for the camera setting item, for example, a text file in which identification information indicating that the setting item is described and text data indicating the content of the setting item are used is used. Is possible.

  If the result of determination in step S106 is that there is no file in which user setting items have already been saved, the created file is stored in the external storage medium 109 (step S108), and this process ends. In the process of step S108, an encryption process may be performed before the created file is stored in the external storage medium 109.

  If the result of determination in step S106 is that there is already a file in which user setting items are stored, a warning to the effect that it exists is displayed on the display unit 105 as a warning. At the same time or separately, a selection menu for overwriting the created file over the existing file or creating another file as a new file is displayed on the display unit 105 to allow the user to select (step S110). When the warning is displayed, the contents of the existing file may be displayed on the display unit 105. This facilitates selection of one file from a plurality of arbitrarily displayed files, and facilitates selection of a file to be overwritten upon overwriting.

  If the user selects “overwrite” as a result of the selection in step S110, the file is stored in the external storage medium 109 by overwriting the created file over the existing file (step S108), and this process is terminated. . As a result of the selection in step S110, when the user selects “create another file”, another file is created as a new file (step S111), and the file is stored in the external storage medium 109 (step S108). This process is terminated.

If the result of determination in step S103 is that there is not enough free space, sufficient free space is secured by executing initialization processing of the external storage medium storage area of FIG. 4 described later (step S109). Exit. If sufficient free space cannot be secured in the processing of step S109, the user setting item storage control unit 110 warns the display unit 105 that there is not enough free space to store the user setting items on the removable disk 109. Is preferred.

  According to the process of FIG. 3, since the user setting items stored in the in-camera storage area are selectively stored in the external storage medium 109 (step S108), the user setting items are easily copied to another digital still camera. be able to.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the initialization process of the storage area of the external storage medium 109 executed in step S109 of FIG.

  In FIG. 4, it is determined whether or not a file storing user setting items exists in the storage area of the external storage medium 109 (step S201). If it does not exist, the storage area of the external storage medium 109 is immediately initialized (step S202), the completion of initialization is displayed on the display unit 105 (step S207), and this process ends.

  If the result of determination in step S201 is that there is a file storing user setting items in the storage area of the external storage medium 109, a warning to the effect that it exists is displayed on the display unit 105. In addition, a selection menu is displayed for selecting whether to completely initialize the file in the external storage medium 109 without leaving it or whether to save the existing user setting item saved file after initialization. (Step S203).

Result of the selection step S203, when fully initialized without leaving the file, the user set items Symbol 憶 controller 110 initializes the storage area of the external storage medium 109 (step S202), the process ends To do. When leaving the file after initialization, the user set items Symbol 憶 control unit 110 secures a space required for the camera in a storage area temporarily retract from the external storage medium 109 reads out the file (step S204) . After saving, the storage area of the external storage medium 109 is initialized (step S205), and the temporarily saved file is read and stored again in the initialized external storage medium 109 (step S206). Then, the initialization completion is displayed on the display unit 105 (step S207), and this process is terminated.

  According to the processing of FIG. 4, even if user setting items necessary for copying are stored in the external storage medium 109, it is possible to prevent the user setting items from being accidentally deleted when the external storage medium 109 is initialized. Can do.

  The contents of the user setting items (FIG. 2) differ between different models of cameras, but the basic setting items as cameras are common to all models.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of user setting item reflection processing executed by the user setting item storage control unit 110 in FIG.

In FIG. 5, first, the user setting item storage control unit 110 searches for a user setting item file stored in the storage area of the external storage medium 109 (step S <b> 301), and the searched user setting item file is displayed on the display unit 105. It is displayed (step S302). Next, when the user selects a file to be read based on the display content (step S303), the user setting item storage control unit 110 reads the selected user setting item into the in-camera storage area (step S304). Then, based on the read user setting item, data on the model is extracted and compared with data on the model of the own device. And it is discriminate | determined whether both are the same models (step S305).

  If the result of determination in step S306 is that the camera is the same model, as shown in FIG. 6, all of the basic setting items common to the models and the user setting items specific to the product for each model are copied and stored in the external storage medium 109. Thus, the user setting is reflected (step S307). When the camera is of a different model, as shown in FIG. 7, only the basic setting items of the user setting items are reflected, and the user setting items unique to the product for each model are not reflected (step S308), and this processing ends. .

  As described above, in the present embodiment, by referring to the camera model information included in the user setting item, when the user setting item is exchanged between different models, the user setting item to be automatically reflected is selected. It was set as the structure to do. With this configuration, unnecessary items are not read out at the time of reflection.

  As the user setting items to be reflected, the user setting items retrieved in step S301 may be those determined by the reflection destination digital still camera.

  In the present embodiment, the camera that stores the user setting item in the external storage medium 109 and the camera that reflects the user setting item of the other device stored in the external storage medium as separate cameras in the present embodiment. Described. However, it goes without saying that a camera having the functions of both cameras may be used.

It is a block diagram which shows roughly the internal structure of the digital still camera which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the user setting item which a user can set. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a procedure for storing user setting items executed by a user setting item storage control unit 110 in FIG. 1. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the initialization process of the storage area of the external storage medium performed by step S109 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the reflection process of the user setting item performed by the user setting item storage control part 110 in FIG. It is a figure explaining the process of step S307 of FIG. It is a figure explaining the process of step S308 of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Imaging part 101, 103 Buffer memory 102 Image processing part 104 Operation part 105 Display part 106 Display control part 107 System control part 108 Interface 110 User setting item memory | storage control part

Claims (5)

An imaging device to which a first storage medium is connected,
Control means for controlling so that user setting item information including information on a plurality of items that can be set by a user is stored in the first storage medium connected to the imaging device;
An initialization means for performing an initialization process selected from a plurality of initialization processes;
Have
One of the plurality of initialization processes is to initialize the first storage medium so that the user setting item information stored in the first storage medium is deleted from the first storage medium. A first initialization process to be performed,
One of the plurality of initialization processes is that the user setting item information stored in the first storage medium is stored in the second storage medium in the imaging apparatus and then stored in the first storage medium . Secondly, the user setting item information stored in the second storage medium is stored in the first storage medium after the first storage medium is initialized. An imaging apparatus that is an initialization process . And further comprising selection means for allowing the user to select the user setting item information stored in the first storage medium,
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the user setting item information selected by using the selection unit to be stored in the first storage medium. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an encryption unit configured to encrypt the user setting item information stored in the first storage medium. A selection unit that allows a user to select one of the plurality of initialization processes;
When the first initialization process is selected, the initialization unit performs the first initialization process,
4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the second initialization process is selected, the initialization unit performs the second initialization process. 5. One of the plurality of items is shutter speed, shooting mode, metering mode, drive mode, ISO value, ISO bracket, AE bracket, white balance bracket, color matrix, tone curve, sharpness, contrast, confirmation of the shot image, Confirmation time of shot images, noise reduction function, manual white balance, highlight warning display, AF frame display, switching between mirror-up shooting and normal shooting, settings for spot metering, settings for strobe, upper and lower limits of shutter speed, aperture The imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the imaging apparatus is an item related to any of an upper limit and a lower limit of numerical values, continuous shooting speed, and the number of shots during continuous shooting.

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