Film reading apparatus which reads an unexposed portion of a film to determine its type

A film reading apparatus comprising:

• extracting means for color-separating a film document to extract a plurality of color component signals;
• discriminating means for discriminating the type of the film document by using a color component signal relating to an unexposed portion of the film document output by said extracting means;
• and
• control means for controlling the signal level of a color component signal relating to an exposed portion of the film document in accordance with the discrimination result obtained by said discriminating means;
• wherein said discriminating means discriminates whether the film document is a color film or a monochrome film.

A film reading apparatus comprising:

• extracting means for color-separating a film document to extract a plurality of color component signals;
• discriminating means for discriminating the type of the film document by using a color component signal relating to an unexposed portion of the film document output by said extracting means;
• and
• control means for controlling the signal level of a color component signal relating to an exposed portion of the film document in accordance with the dicrimination result obtained by said discriminating means;
• wherein said control means inverts the level of the color component signal relating to the exposed portion of the film document when said discriminating means discriminates that the film document is a negative film.

A film reading apparatus comprising:

• extracting means for color-separating a film document to extract a plurality of color component signals;
• discriminating means for discriminating the type of the film document by using a color component signal relating to an unexposed portion of the film document output by said extracting means;
• and
• control means for controlling the signal level of a color component signal relating to an exposed portion of the film document in accordance with the discrimination result obtained by said discriminating means;
• wherein said control means removes a bias signal, which depends upon the type of (the) film document discriminated by said discriminating means, form the color component signal relating to the exposed portion of the film document.