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US 5,687,402 AGranted
Automatic focusing camera provided with an auxiliary light emitter
AssigneeMinolta Co., Ltd.
InventorsTsuyoshi Kishimoto, Norihiko Akamatsu, Hiroshi Ueda, Masataka Hamada, Kazuhiko Yukawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic focusing camera has a selective night view mode of photographing a scene where the brightness of a main object is lower than the brightness of a background and the brightness of the whole scene is lower than a specified value, and includes an auxiliary light emitter operable to emit an auxiliary light to the main object for focusing; a first determinator operable to determine whether an auxiliary light is necessary in the night view mode; and a controller in responsive to the first determinator to render the auxiliary light emitter emit an auxiliary light.
Claims16
A camera comprising:
- a photographing device having a taking lens and operable to photograph a scene consisting of a main object and a background, the photographing device having a selective night view mode for photographing a scene where the brightness of a main object is lower than the brightness of a background and the brightness of the entire scene is lower than a specified value;
- an automatic focusing device operable to place the taking lens in an in-focus condition based on light from the scene, the automatic focusing device including:
- an auxiliary light emitter operable to emit auxiliary light toward the main object for focusing;
- a first determinator operable to determine whether auxiliary light is necessary in the night view mode;
- and
- a controller responsive to the first determinator to cause the auxiliary light emitter to emit auxiliary light.
3 more elements
A camera comprising:
- a photographing device having a taking lens and operable to photograph a scene consisting of a main object and a background, the photographing device having a selective night view mode for photographing a scene where the brightness of a main object is lower than the brightness of a background and the brightness of the entire scene is lower than a specified value;
- a focus condition detector operable to detect a focus condition of the taking lens;
- an auxiliary light emitter operable to emit auxiliary light for focus condition detection;
- a determinator operable to determine whether it is necessary to put the auxiliary light emitter in operation in the night view mode;
- a first controller responsive to the determinator to cause the auxiliary light emitter to emit auxiliary light to execute a focus condition detection, and adjust the focus condition of the taking lens based on a result of the focus condition detection when the determinator determines that auxiliary light emission is necessary;
- and
- a second controller responsive to adjust the focus condition of the taking lens based on a detection result which has been obtained without auxiliary light emission when the determinator determines auxiliary light emission is not necessary.
4 more elements
A camera comprising:
- a photographing device having a taking lens and operable to photograph a scene consisting of a main object and a background, the photographing device having a selective night view mode suitable for photographing a night scene;
- and
- an automatic focusing device operable to place the taking lens in an in-focus condition based on light from a night scene, the automatic focusing device including:
- an auxiliary light emitter operable to emit auxiliary light toward the main object for focusing;
- a first determinator operable to determine whether auxiliary light is necessary in the night view mode;
- and
- a controller responsive to the first determinator to cause the auxiliary light emitter to emit auxiliary light.
4 more elements
A camera comprising:
- a photographing device having a taking lens and operable to photograph a scene consisting of a main object and a background, the photographing device having a selective night view mode suitable for photographing a night scene;
- a focus condition detector operable to detect a focus condition of the taking lens;
- an auxiliary light emitter operable to emit auxiliary light for focus condition detection;
- a determinator operable to determine whether it is necessary to put the auxiliary light emitter in operation in the night view mode;
- a first controller responsive to the determinator to cause the auxiliary light emitter to emit auxiliary light to execute a focus condition detection, and adjust the focus condition of the taking lens based on a result of the focus condition detection when the determinator determines that auxiliary light emission is necessary;
- and
- a second controller responsive to adjust the focus condition of the taking lens based on a detection result which is obtained without auxiliary light emission when the determinator determines auxiliary light emission is not necessary.
4 more elements
A camera comprising:
- a photographing device having a taking lens and operable to photograph a scene consisting of a main object and a background, the photographing device having a selective mode suitable for photographing a scene where the brightness or contrast of a main object is lower than the brightness or contrast of a background;
- an automatic focusing device operable to place the taking lens in an in-focus condition based on light from the scene, the automatic focusing device including:
- an auxiliary emitter operable to emit auxiliary light toward the main object for focusing;
- a first determinator operable to determine whether auxiliary light is necessary in the selective mode;
- and
- a controller responsive to the first determinator to cause the auxiliary light emitter to emit auxiliary light.
3 more elements
A camera comprising:
- a photographing device having a taking lens and operable to photograph a scene consisting of a main object and a background, the photographing device having a selective mode suitable for photographing a scene where the brightness or contrast of a main object is lower than the brightness or contrast of a background;
- a focus condition detector operable to detect a focus condition of the taking lens;
- an auxiliary light emitter operable to emit auxiliary light for focus condition detection;
- a determinator operable to determine whether it is necessary to put the auxiliary light emitter in operation in the selective mode;
- a first controller responsive to the determinator to cause the auxiliary light emitter to emit auxiliary light to execute a focus condition detection, and adjust the focus condition of the taking lens based on a result of the focus condition detection when the determinator determines that auxiliary light emission is necessary;
- and
- a second controller responsive to adjust the focus condition of the taking lens based on a detection result which has been obtained without auxiliary light emission when the determinator determines auxiliary light emission is not necessary.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.