Image pickup apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasamine Maeda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image pickup apparatus is provided with a number-of-pixels reducing circuit arranged to form a reduced image by reducing to a predetermined number the effective pixels among all pixels owned by an image sensor in such a manner that the method for reducing the effective pixels changes when the image pickup mode of the apparatus is set to a first mode (a small-image-plane image pickup mode). The number of effective pixels is reduced in a manner apposite to the situation in which an image is picked up. Exposure control is performed appositely to the reduction of effective pixels, so that depiction can be effectively made by taking advantage of the effect of depth of field, etc., according to the situation.
Claims24
An image pickup apparatus, comprising:
- an image pickup circuit which photoelectrically converts, into pixel signals, a light image formed through a lens;
- and
- a setting controller which sets an image pickup mode selected from among a plurality of image pickup modes,
- said plurality of image pickup modes including at least a first mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are reduced by extracting pixel signals of a predetermined continuous area from the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit, a second mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are reduced by thinning out the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit according to a predetermined rule, and a third mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are not reduced more than in the first and second modes.
An image pickup apparatus, comprising:
- an image pickup circuit which photoelectrically converts, into pixel signals, a light image formed through a lens;
- and
- a controller which performs control in such a way as to change, according to an object an image of which is to be picked up, a method of reducing the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit.
An image pickup method, comprising:
- a photoelectric conversion step of photoelectrically converting, by an image pickup circuit, into pixel signals, a light image formed through a lens;
- and
- a setting step of setting an image pickup mode selected from among a plurality of image pickup modes, said plurality of image pickup modes including at least a first mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are reduced by extracting pixel signals of a predetermined continuous area from the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit, a second mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are reduced by thinning out the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit according to a predetermined rule, and a third mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are not reduced more than in the first and second modes.
An image pickup method, comprising
- a photoelectric conversion step of photoelectrically converting, by an image pickup circuit, into pixel signals, a light image formed through a lens;
- and
- a control step of performing control in such a way as to change, according to an object an image of which is to be picked up, a method of reducing the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit.
A storage medium which stores therein, in a computer-readable manner, a processing program for executing a function of an image pickup apparatus having a photoelectric conversion circuit which photoelectrically converts, by an image pickup circuit, into pixel signals, a light image formed through a lens,
- said processing program having a setting code for setting an image pickup mode selected from among a plurality of image pickup modes,
- said plurality of image pickup modes including at least a first mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are reduced by extracting pixel signals of a predetermined continuous area from the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit, a second mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are reduced by thinning out the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit according to a predetermined rule, and a third mode in which the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit are not reduced more than in the first and second modes.
A storage medium which stores therein, in a computer-readable manner, a processing program for executing a function of an image pickup apparatus having a photoelectric conversion circuit which photoelectrically converts, by an image pickup circuit, into pixel signals, a light image formed through a lens,
- said processing program having a control code for performing control in such a way as to change, according to an object an image of which is to be picked up, a method of reducing the pixel signals obtained by said image pickup circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.