JP3431954B2 - Camera with red-eye reduction function - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera having a red-eye reduction function. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, when performing flash photography in the dark, in order to reduce the frequency of occurrence of the red-eye phenomenon, a shutter is opened (flash exposure) in order to narrow the pupil of a person who is a subject in advance. Previously, there are many cameras having a red-eye reduction function of irradiating a subject with light using a lamp or the like. The activation and non-activation of the red-eye reduction function (for example, the normal lighting of the red-eye reduction lamp or the normal non-lighting) is normally determined by initial setting, and is performed by setting operation means such as a switch. It can be arbitrarily switched, and is returned to the initial setting state (so-called "reset") after the photographing operation is completed or when the main switch (operable switch) is turned off or the like. Is common. However, once the operator sets the activation and deactivation of the red-eye reduction function arbitrarily, the operator sets the desired lighting state once, once the photographing operation is completed or the main switch is turned off. Nevertheless, there arises a problem of inconvenience in operation, such as the need to reset every time even in a shooting operation under the same conditions. For example, in a camera in which the initial setting is a normal non-operation setting of the red-eye reduction function and the camera is reset each time the photographing operation ends, the photographer sets the red-eye reduction function to an operation state once in order to shoot in a situation where red-eye is likely to occur. However, since the operation state is reset each time the photographing is performed once, the setting must be reset before the next photographing or the main switch OF.
If the camera is reset for each F and forgets to reset it and does not reset the red-eye reduction function to the active state, the red-eye reduction function becomes inactive and the red-eye phenomenon occurs. Occurs. In order to solve the problem, a setting operation means for arbitrarily setting the red-eye reduction function is provided, and the operation information of the red-eye reduction function thus set is stored, and the red-eye reduction function based on the stored information is stored. To make settings,
Some cameras have a so-called red-eye reduction function setting learning function. In recent years, in addition to a normal photographing mode (hereinafter referred to as "auto"), there are cameras which have a close-up photographing, a night scene photographing, and a unique photographing mode such as a moving object photographing for sports or a portrait only. I do. [0007] In a camera having a learning function for the red-eye reduction function as described in the above-mentioned conventional example, the red-eye reduction function is not particularly related to the photographing mode. In general, an independent configuration is provided, and therefore, the operating state of the red-eye reduction function stored by the learning function is set regardless of which shooting mode of a camera having a plurality of shooting modes is set. Are set the same. However, depending on the photographing mode, there is a case where it is desired to set the operating state of the red-eye reduction function so that the photographing state becomes the best. For example, in the moving object photographing mode, the red-eye reduction function is desirably set to a non-operating state in order to reduce a time lag from when a release switch is turned on to when actual film exposure is started. In addition, since the portrait mode is set on the premise that a person is photographed, it is desired that the red-eye reduction function is always set to the operating state. In response to such a demand, in a camera in which the operating state of the red-eye reduction function is set under the same conditions by the learning function in each of the above-described shooting modes,
There is a possibility that shooting will be performed in a non-optimal state. In view of the above-mentioned state of the prior art, the present invention sets the red-eye reduction function to the active or inactive state in a specific photographing mode as in the previous time, while respecting the operator's intention. It is intended to provide a camera with a red-eye reduction function that can be used. A feature of the camera with a red-eye reduction function according to the present invention that achieves the above object is that a red-eye phenomenon occurs.
Before opening the shutter to reduce the frequency
A red-eye reduction function for irradiating light, and forcibly operating the red-eye reduction function during a plurality of shooting modes.
In at least a camera and an automatic light emission control mode to determine the light emission of the strobe based on over-de and the Red-eye reduction is not without mode and result of photometry operation and a setting operation means capable of setting the operation and non-operation of the red-eye reduction function Storage means for storing an operation or non-operation state of the red-eye reduction function set by the setting operation means in the automatic light emission control mode of the plurality of shooting modes; and a main switch for starting the operation of the camera. Is activated, and when the automatic light emission control mode is selected, the operation state of the red eye reduction function is set based on the stored information of the red eye reduction function operation state stored for the automatic light emission control mode, while the red eye reduction function is set. Mode to forcibly activate
And a setting means for setting the red-eye mitigation function operation state to a predetermined operation state regardless of the operation state stored in the storage means in the mode in which the red-eye mitigation function is not activated . According to the present invention having the above-described structure, when a setting for operating, for example, the red-eye mitigation function is performed in the automatic light emission control mode, the setting is stored in the storage means. When the main switch of the camera is turned on for shooting and the automatic flash control mode is selected, shooting with the red-eye reduction function activated is performed as before, while the red-eye reduction function is forcibly activated. Mode
And the mode in which the red-eye reduction function is not activated,
The mitigation function operation state is related to the operation state stored in the storage means.
Irrespective of this, photographing is performed in a state where a predetermined red-eye reduction function is activated or not activated. Further, in the present invention having the above configuration, the storage means may adopt a configuration in which the operation information of the red-eye mitigation function set by the setting operation means is stored in a non-volatile memory. Since the stored information is stored even when the battery is replaced, the operability is further improved. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. Embodiment 1 FIGS. 1 to 5 show Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view (front view and rear view) of a camera of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the camera electric control according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In these figures, reference numeral 1 denotes a strobe light emitting unit for irradiating light to a subject when photographing in the dark.
Reference numeral 11 denotes a xenon tube for irradiating a subject at the time of photographing, 12 denotes a xenon tube 11 for irradiating the subject before photographing to narrow the pupil and reduce red-eye, and 13 denotes a xenon tube 11
And a reflector 14 for reflecting the light emitted from the red-eye alleviating lamp 12 toward the subject by reflecting the light emitted from the xenon tube 11 and the red-eye reducing lamp 12 directed toward the subject by the reflector 13. It is a Fresnel lens for light. Reference numeral 2 denotes a release switch for starting a photographing operation of the camera. Reference numeral 3 denotes a lens barrel having a photographing lens, in which a shutter for controlling an exposure amount to a film is disposed. 4 is a well-known distance measuring sensor for measuring the distance to the subject, 5 is a well-known photometric sensor for measuring the brightness of the subject, б is a finder for checking the angle of view, and 7 is a main switch. A dial-type shooting mode setting switch for turning on / off the camera and setting the shooting mode;
Reference numeral 8 denotes a liquid crystal display (hereinafter, referred to as LCD) for confirming the state of the shooting mode and the like.
Reference numeral 9 denotes a red-eye lamp setting switch as a setting operation means of a red-eye reduction function for arbitrarily setting whether or not to turn on the red-eye reduction lamp 12 before the start of exposure to the film when the flash is in a flash state. In this embodiment, the photographing mode which can be set by the photographing mode setting switch 7 is a main switch-off (MAIN-OFF) mode in which the operation of the camera is prohibited, and an automatic flash in which the strobe is automatically fired when the photometry result is low luminance. (AUT
In addition to the O) mode, a slow synchro (SLOW • S) mode that holds the shutter open to expose low-brightness subjects such as night scenes even after the flash is emitted, a macro (MACRO) mode for close-up shooting, and moving object shooting There are a total of six types of sports (SPORTS) mode and portrait (PORTRAIT) mode for shooting a person, and one of them is selectively set by the dial position of the shooting mode setting switch 7. The red-eye lamp setting switch 9 is provided with a red-eye reduction lamp 1 just before the shutter is opened under the flash emission condition.
The red-eye ON mode for turning on the LED 2 and the red-eye OFF mode in which the red-eye reduction lamp 12 is not turned on at all regardless of conditions such as strobe light emission are provided so as to circulate each time the key is pressed once. A control circuit 31 controls the entire camera, and includes a volatile memory 311 for storing measurement information, a timer 312 for counting various times, and the like. 32
Is a well-known distance measuring circuit including the distance measuring sensor 4, 33 is a well-known light measuring circuit including the light measuring sensor 5, 34 is a red-eye lamp driving circuit for turning on the red-eye reducing lamp 12, and 35 is a light measuring circuit. A flash drive circuit for causing the xenon tube 11 to emit light in accordance with the photometry result of 33 and the shooting mode state set by the shooting mode setting switch 7;
Reference numeral 36 denotes a shutter drive circuit which opens and closes shutter blades (not shown) by energizing a coil 37 to control the exposure amount of the film, and 38 supplies a predetermined amount (for example, one frame) of the film after the exposure operation on the film is completed. This is a feeding circuit that controls the rotation operation of the feeding motor 39 to perform feeding. Although not shown, all of the camera electric control blocks are driven by a battery (eg, lithium battery 2CR5) which is a common power supply. FIGS. 4 and 5 are flow charts showing the operation of the camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In step S101, all changes are made when any of the release switch 2, the photographing mode setting switch 7 and the red-eye lamp setting switch 9 is changed. Then, the process proceeds to S102. In S102, it is checked whether or not the MAIN-OFF mode is set by the photographing mode setting switch 7. If the MAIN-OFF mode is set, a series of operations is ended. If not, the flow shifts to S103. In step S103, a shooting mode is set according to the information of the shooting mode setting switch 7 detected in step S101.
L. C. D. 8 displays a display corresponding to the set photographing mode. In step S104, the red-eye reduction lamp 12 is turned on.
Set the non-lighting mode. The operation of this step will be described later in detail with reference to a subroutine flowchart of FIG. In step S105, the release switch 2 is set in step S101.
It is checked whether or not has been turned on. If it has not been turned on, the process proceeds to S101, and if it has been turned on, the process proceeds to S106. In step S106, the distance to the subject is measured by the distance measuring circuit 32. In step S107, the luminance of the subject is measured by the photometric circuit 33. In step S108, the exposure operation information is calculated based on the distance measurement and photometry information acquired in steps S106 and S107 and the photographing mode information including the lighting / non-lighting of the set red-eye alleviating lamp 12, and calculated. Move to. In step S109, the shutter drive circuit 36 is driven to energize the coil 37 in order to open and close the shutter blades based on the information obtained in step S108 and to expose the film. In this step, if the red-eye lamp ON mode is set and the flash emission condition such as low luminance is satisfied, the red-eye lamp is turned on for a predetermined time (for example, 2 seconds) before energization of the coil 37 is started. The drive circuit 34 is driven to turn on the red-eye reduction lamp 12. In addition, when the flash emission condition such as low luminance is satisfied, the flash drive circuit 35 is driven to emit light from the xenon tube 11 at a timing following the opening and closing of the shutter blades. In step S110, the feeding circuit 39 drives the feeding motor 39 to feed a predetermined amount of film in order to set the next photographing frame, assuming that a series of exposure operations on the film have been completed. The above is a series of operations of the camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a subroutine flowchart for setting a mode for turning on / off the red eye alleviating lamp 12.
5 is a detailed description of S104 in FIG. In step S301, it is checked whether the AUTO mode has been set by the photographing mode setting switch 7.
If it is set, the process proceeds to step S302. If it is not set, the process proceeds to step S302.
Move to 303. In step S302, the lighting information of the red eye alleviation lamp 12 already stored in the memory 311 is stored in the control circuit 3
1 is read as information of L.1. C. D. 8 is displayed corresponding to the lighting state. In step S303, the lighting information of the red-eye reduction lamp 12 initially set for each shooting mode is read as information of the control circuit 31 in correspondence with the shooting mode set in step S103. C. D. 8 is displayed corresponding to the lighting state. In step S304, it is determined whether or not the switch change in step S101 in FIG. 4 indicates that the red-eye lamp setting switch 9 is ON.
If it has been turned on, the process proceeds to step S306. If it has not been turned on, the operation of the subroutine flowchart ends, and the process proceeds to step S306 in FIG.
Move to 105. In step S305, similarly to step S304, step S1 in FIG.
0l of the switch change is O of the red eye lamp setting switch 9
Judge whether N or not, if it is ON, go to S309, ON
If not, the operation of the subroutine flowchart ends, and the flow shifts to S105 in FIG. In step S306, when the red-eye lamp setting switch 9 is turned on, the lighting information of the red-eye reducing lamp 12 read in step S302 is changed. That is, if the read lighting information is the red-eye lamp ON mode, the reading is changed to the red-eye lamp OFF mode. If the lighting information is the red-eye lamp OFF mode, the mode is changed to the red-eye lamp ON mode. In step S307, the lighting information of the red-eye reduction lamp 12 changed in step S306 is stored in the memory 311. In step S308, the lighting information of the red-eye alleviation lamp 12 stored in step S307 is read out as information of the control circuit 31. C. D. 8 is displayed corresponding to the lighting state. In step S309, when the red-eye lamp setting switch 9 is turned on, the lighting information of the red-eye alleviation lamp 12 read in step S303 is changed. That is, if the read lighting information is the red-eye lamp ON mode, the reading is changed to the red-eye lamp OFF mode. If the lighting information is the red-eye lamp OFF mode, the mode is changed to the red-eye lamp ON mode. The above is a series of lighting / non-lighting mode settings of the series of red-eye reduction lamps 12 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Embodiment 2 FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the electric control of a camera according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention, and is basically the same as FIG. 3, and therefore only different points will be described. In the first embodiment, the red-eye reduction lamp 12
The memory for storing the lighting / non-lighting mode setting is provided in the control circuit 31. The memory is volatile and has a driving power source (for example, lithium battery 2C).
R5) When the voltage drops or is replaced, the stored information is lost. Therefore, the second embodiment is characterized in that the above disadvantage is eliminated by providing a nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM. That is, reference numeral 40 denotes a non-volatile memory (EEPROM or the like) for storing mode setting information for lighting / non-lighting of the red-eye alleviating lamp 12, which performs an operation in place of the memory 311 shown in the first embodiment. . The contents stored in the memory 40 do not disappear even when the battery voltage drops or the battery is replaced. The rest of the configuration and the operation of the camera are the same as in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted. As described above, according to the present invention,
In the automatic light emission control mode, for example, when the setting for activating the red-eye reduction function is performed, the setting is stored in the storage unit. After the main switch of the camera is turned off, the main switch of the camera is turned on for the next shooting, and the automatic light emission control is performed. When the mode is selected, shooting with the red-eye reduction function activated is performed as before, while the red-eye reduction function is forcibly activated.
Mode and the mode in which the red-eye reduction function is not activated.
In the case, the operating state of the red eye mitigation function is stored in the storage means.
Regardless of the operating state, the photographing is performed with the predetermined red-eye reduction function activated or deactivated, so that the photographer can immediately take a photograph while respecting the intention of the photographer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram (a front view and a rear view) of a camera according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a strobe light emitting unit, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the red-eye reduction lamp according to the first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 is a camera electric control block diagram according to a second embodiment of the present invention. [Description of Signs] 1: Strobe light emitting unit, 11: Xenon tube, 12: Red-eye reduction lamp, 13: Reflection shade, 14: Fresnel lens,
2: release switch, 3: lens barrel, 4: distance measurement sensor, 5: photometric sensor, 6: finder, 7: shooting mode switch, 8: liquid crystal display, 9: red-eye lamp setting switch, 31: control circuit, 311: Memory, 312:
Timer, 32: distance measuring circuit, 33: photometric circuit, 34: red-eye lamp driving circuit, 35: strobe driving circuit, 36: shutter driving circuit, 37: coil, 38: feeding circuit, 3
9: feeding motor, 40: nonvolatile memory.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-3-144428 (JP, A) JP-A-58-198031 (JP, A) JP-A-62-201424 (JP, A) JP-A-1- 244436 (JP, A) JP-A-4-34422 (JP, A) JP-A-5-341361 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03B 15/05

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] To reduce the frequency of occurrence of the red-eye phenomenon
Red-eye relaxation that irradiates light toward the subject before the shutter opens
It has a sum function and the red-eye
Mode for forcing the sum function to work and the red-eye reduction function
At least having a an automatic light emission control mode to determine the light emission of the strobe based on not mode and photometry result to operate the
A setting operation means capable of setting activation and deactivation of the red-eye reduction function, and an activation or deactivation state of the red-eye reduction function set by the setting operation means in the automatic light emission control mode of the plurality of shooting modes. And a main switch for executing the start of the operation of the camera is operated, and when the automatic light emission control mode is selected, the operation of the red-eye reduction function operation state stored for the automatic light emission control mode is performed. while setting the operating state of the red-eye reduction function based on the stored information, the red-eye reduction machine
Function and the red-eye reduction function.
Setting means for setting the operating state of the red-eye mitigation function to a predetermined operating state irrespective of the operating state stored in the storage means in the non-moving mode .