Photoelectric converting device having a plurality of monitoring means for detecting point of focus with high precision for focusing area lying over a plurality of blocks

A point-of-focus detection device comprising:

• a plurality of charge storage type photoelectric converting elements divided into a plurality of groups;
• a plurality of monitoring means respectively provided for said divided photoelectric converting element groups, for outputting monitor signals corresponding to amounts of lights received by said-photoelectric converting element groups and interrupting the charge storage operation of that of said photoelectric converting element groups which corresponds to the monitoring means whose output has reached a preset value;
• focusing area setting means for setting a focusing area;
• correction means for correcting the outputs of said photoelectric converting elements when the focusing area set by said focusing area setting means lies over at least two of said photoelectric converting element groups;
• and
• point-of-focus detection means for detecting the point of focus of an area set by said focusing area setting means by use of the outputs of said photoelectric converting elements which are corrected by said correction means.

A photoelectric converting device comprising:

• a plurality of charge storage type photoelectric converting elements divided into a plurality of groups;
• a plurality of monitoring means respectively provided for said divided photoelectric converting element groups, for outputting monitor signals corresponding to amounts of lights received by said photoelectric converting element groups;
• first charge storage interruption means for interrupting the charge storage operation of that of said photoelectric converting element groups whose monitoring signal has reached a preset value after said photoelectric converting elements started the charge storage operation;
• second charge storage interruption means for forcedly interrupting the charge storage operation of said photoelectric converting element groups in a case where the charge storage operation is not interrupted by said first charge storage interruption means when a preset time has elapsed after the charge storage operation was started;
• and
• correction means for correcting outputs of said plurality of respective photoelectric converting element groups to make the outputs of said photoelectric converting elements continuous in a case where the charge storage operations of said plurality of photoelectric converting element groups are interrupted at different timings by said first charge storage interruption means.

A photoelectric converting device comprising:

• a plurality of charge storage type photoelectric converting elements divided into a plurality of groups;
• a plurality of monitoring means respectively provided for said divided photoelectric converting element groups, for outputting monitor signals corresponding to amounts of lights received by said photoelectric converting element groups and interrupting the charge storage operation of that of said photoelectric converting element groups which corresponds to the monitoring means whose output has reached a preset value;
• and
• correction means for respectively correcting outputs of said plurality of photoelectric converting element groups to make the outputs of said photoelectric converting elements continuous in a case where the charge storage operations of said plurality of photoelectric converting element groups are interrupted at different timings by said monitoring means.

A distance measuring device of a camera comprising:

• image receiving means having an image receiving plane to which an object image is projected and a plurality of charge storage type photoelectric converting elements arranged on said image receiving plane;
• a plurality of monitoring means respectively provided for a plurality of blocks which are obtained by dividing said image receiving plane of said image receiving means, for outputting signals representing the average charge storage levels of the respective blocks;
• control means for controlling the charge storage operations of said respective blocks based on the outputs of said monitoring means;
• storing means for measuring and storing charge storage times of said blocks;
• setting means for setting a focusing area in a desired position on the object image;
• readout means for reading out an image signal from the charge storage type photoelectric converting block corresponding to the focusing area, said readout means including means for correcting the level of the image signals according to the charge storage times stored in said storing means in a case where the focusing area is set to lie over at least two of said divided blocks;
• and
• point-of-focus detection means for effecting the point-of-focus detecting operation according to the image signal output from said readout means.

A distance measuring device comprising:

• an integration type image sensor having an image receiving plane, for subjecting an object image projected to said image receiving plane to the photoelectric conversion, said image sensor being divided into a plurality of blocks and the integral time being controlled for each of the blocks;
• setting means for setting part of the object image as a distance measuring area;
• readout means for reading out an image signal of an area corresponding to the area set by said setting means from said image sensor, said readout means including means for normalizing the readout image signal by use of the integral times for said respective blocks when the area set by said setting means lies over at leas two of said plurality of blocks;
• and
• point-of-focus detection means for effecting the point-of-focus detecting operation according to an output from said readout means.

A photoelectric converting device comprising:

• an image sensor for subjecting an image to the photoelectric conversion, said image sensor being constructed by a plurality of blocks in which the photoelectric converting operations are independently controlled;
• setting means for setting an area to be read out among the photoelectric converted image signal;
• and
• readout means for reading out a signal of the area set by said setting means from said image sensor, said readout means including means for normalizing the readout image signal to create a substantially continuous image signal when the area set by said setting means lies over at least two of said plurality of blocks.

An image signal outputting device comprising:

• image receiving means having an image receiving plane on which a plurality of charge storage type photoelectric converting elements are arranged;
• adjusting means for adjusting the integral time for each of a plurality of blocks which are obtained by dividing said image receiving plane;
• readout means for reading out an image signal;
• and
• normalizing means for normalizing the image signal based on the charge storage integral time for each of said blocks, thereby creating a substantially continuous image signal.

An image signal outputting device comprising:

• an image sensor for subjecting an image to the photoelectric conversion, said image sensor being constructed by a plurality of blocks in which the photoelectric converting operations are independently controlled;
• readout means for reading out an image signal from said image sensor;
• and
• correction means for correcting the level of the image signal for each of said blocks to make the readout image signals substantially continuous.

A photoelectric converting device comprising:

• a plurality of photoelectric converting element groups;
• monitoring devices respectively provided for said plurality of photoelectric converting element groups;
• an integral time counting device;
• a storing device for storing time of completion of the integration;
• a focusing area setting device for selecting a desired focusing area;
• and
• a correction device for correcting outputs of the photoelectric converting element group which corresponds to said focusing area setting device according to information stored in said storing device.

A photoelectric converting device comprising:

• a plurality of photoelectric converting element groups;
• monitoring devices respectively provided for said plurality of photoelectric converting element groups;
• an integral time counting device;
• storing means for storing time of completion of the integration;
• a focusing area setting device for selecting a desired focusing area;
• and
• a correction device for correcting outputs of said photoelectric converting element groups according to information stored in said storing device.

A photoelectric converting device comprising:

• a plurality of photoelectric converting element groups;
• monitoring devices respectively provided for said plurality of photoelectric converting element groups;
• a storing device for storing information of integration output;
• storing means for storing time of completion of the integration;
• and
• a correction device for correcting outputs of said photoelectric converting element groups according to information stored in said storing means.