US 6,535,693 B2Granted

Photometry device

AssigneePENTAX Corporation

InventorsIsamu Hirai, Yoshikazu Iida

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Abstract

A photometry device for a camera, includes a normal light sensor having spectral sensitivity characteristics close to visual sensitivity characteristics, a plurality of colorimetric sensors having spectral sensitivity characteristics that are different from each other, an exposure amount determining system that determines an exposure amount of an object in accordance with an output of the normal light sensor, a colorimetry system that judges a color of the object in accordance with the outputs of the plurality of colorimetric sensors, and a compensation amount determining system that determines an exposure compensation amount in accordance with the color judged by the colorimetry system. The compensation amount determining system compensates for the exposure compensation amount determined by the compensation amount determining system in accordance with differences among the outputs of the plurality of colorimetric sensors.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A photometry device for a camera, comprising:

a normal light sensor that has spectral sensitivity characteristics close to visual sensitivity characteristics, said normal light sensor having a light metering surface divided into a plurality of photometry areas;
a plurality of colorimetric sensors that have spectral sensitivity characteristics different from each other;
an exposure amount determining system that determines an exposure amount of an object in accordance with an output signal of said normal light sensor;
a colorimetry system that determines a color of the object in accordance with output signals of said plurality of colorimetric sensors;
and
a compensation amount determining system that determines an exposure compensation amount in accordance with the color determined by said colorimetry system, said compensation amount determining system obtaining a difference between a maximum output and a minimum output of the outputs of said plurality of photometry areas of said normal light sensor as a contrast value, said exposure compensation amount being compensated in accordance with the contrast value,
wherein said compensation amount determining system compensates for the exposure compensation amount in accordance with output differences among said plurality of colorimetric sensors.

4 more elements

A photometry device for a camera, comprising:

a photometry system that divides a photographing area into a plurality of photometry areas and performs a photometry operation with respect to each of said plurality of photometry areas;
a colorimetry system that divides a photographing area into a plurality of areas and performs a colorimetry operation with respect to at least one of said plurality of areas;
an exposure amount determining system that determines an exposure amount of an object in accordance with outputs of said photometry system;
an exposure compensation amount determining system that determines a color of the object in accordance with the output of said colorimetry system and determines an exposure compensation amount in accordance with the determined color;
and
an exposure compensation amount compensating system that compensates for the exposure compensation amount in accordance with differences among outputs of said photometry system, wherein said compensation amount compensating system compensates for said exposure compensation amount in accordance with a contrast value, said contrast value representing a difference between a maximum output and a minimum output of said photometry system.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.