Interchangeable lens, imaging apparatus, and camera system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10234747-B2
Application number	US-201715647917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2017
Priority date	Mar 3, 2017
Publication date	Mar 19, 2019
Grant date	Mar 19, 2019

Abstract

Provided is a technology enabling an imaging apparatus and an interchangeable lens to appropriately perform initialization processes. An interchangeable lens includes a lens control unit configured to transmit lens-side initialization execution element information indicating a plurality of lens-side elements on which the lens control unit itself performs initialization to an imaging apparatus in response to reception of body-side initialization execution element information indicating body-side elements on which the imaging apparatus performs initialization from the imaging apparatus. The technology can be applied to, for example, a camera system including a detachable interchangeable lens and an imaging apparatus serving as a camera body side.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An interchangeable lens comprising a lens control unit configured to transmit lens-side initialization execution element information indicating a plurality of lens-side elements on which the lens control unit itself performs initialization to an imaging apparatus in response to reception of body-side initialization execution element information indicating body-side elements on which the imaging apparatus performs initialization from the imaging apparatus.

2. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens-side initialization execution element information is information capable of identifying all of a plurality of lens-side elements on which the interchangeable lens performs initialization.

3. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens-side initialization execution element information is information capable of identifying at least one common element common to the plurality of lens-side elements on which the interchangeable lens performs initialization and the plurality of body-side elements indicated by the body-side initialization execution element information.

4. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens control unit receives the body-side initialization execution element information together with an initialization start command requesting start of the initialization of the interchangeable lens from the imaging apparatus.

5. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens control unit transmits the lens-side initialization execution element information to the imaging apparatus before starting the initialization of the plurality of lens-side elements.

6. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens control unit stores an initialization completion signal indicating initialization completion of each of the lens-side elements in a queue buffer for transmission to the imaging apparatus every time when the initialization of each lens-side element of the plurality of lens-side elements has been completed.

7. The interchangeable lens according to claim 6 , wherein in a case where the plurality of lens-side elements include a diaphragm and non-corresponding exposure influencing element to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond and which influences an exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus, and
the lens control unit stores the initialization completion signal of the diaphragm in the queue buffer at a timing according to the initialization completion of all the non-corresponding exposure influencing elements and the diaphragm.

8. The interchangeable lens according to claim 6 , wherein in a case where the plurality of lens-side elements include corresponding elements to which the imaging apparatus corresponds and non-corresponding elements to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond,
if there are two or more corresponding elements of which the initialization has not been completed, irrespective of the presence or absence of the non-corresponding element of which the initialization has not been completed, the lens control unit stores the initialization completion signal of one corresponding element of which the initialization has been completed in the queue buffer at a timing according to the initialization completion of the one corresponding element of the two or more corresponding elements of which the initialization has not been completed.

9. The interchangeable lens according to claim 6 , wherein in a case where the plurality of lens-side elements include non-corresponding exposure influencing elements to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond and which influence an exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus and corresponding exposure influencing elements to which the imaging apparatus corresponds and which influence the exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus,
if the corresponding exposure influencing element of which the initialization completion signal has not been transmitted is the last one, the lens control unit stores the initialization completion signal of the last corresponding exposure influencing element to which the imaging apparatus corresponds in the queue buffer at a time when the initialization of all the non-corresponding exposure influencing elements has been completed.

10. The interchangeable lens according to claim 6 , wherein in a case where the plurality of lens-side elements include at least one corresponding exposure non-influencing element which is an exposure non-influencing element which does not influence an exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus and to which the imaging apparatus corresponds and at least one non-corresponding exposure non-influencing element which is the exposure non-influencing element and to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond,
if the non-corresponding exposure non-influencing elements of which the initialization has not been completed remain at a timing when the entire initialization of the corresponding exposure non-influencing elements has been completed, the lens control unit waits for the initialization completion of all the non-corresponding exposure non-influencing element and stores the initialization completion signal of the corresponding exposure non-influencing element of which the initialization has been finally completed in the queue buffer.

11. The interchangeable lens according to claim 6 , wherein the lens control unit transmits the initialization completion signal to the imaging apparatus by asynchronous communication.

12. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens control unit exclusively performs the initialization process on a non-corresponding exposure influencing element to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond and which influences an exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus and a non-corresponding exposure non-influencing element to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond and which does not influence the exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus among the lens-side elements.

13. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lens-side elements include exposure influencing elements which influence an exposure adjustment process of the imaging apparatus and exposure non-influencing elements which do not influence the exposure adjustment process, and
the lens control unit performs the initialization process on the exposure influencing elements and the exposure non-influencing elements in different schemes.

14. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lens-side elements include corresponding elements to which the imaging apparatus corresponds and non-corresponding elements to which the imaging apparatus does not correspond, and
the lens control unit performs the initialization process on the corresponding elements and the non-corresponding elements in different schemes.

15. The interchangeable lens according to claim 13 , wherein the different schemes denote that the timing of storage in the queue buffer for transmission to the imaging apparatus is different among the elements of which the initialization has been completed.

16. The interchangeable lens according to claim 1 , wherein the lens control unit transmits the lens-side initialization execution element information to the imaging apparatus by asynchronous communication.

17. An imaging apparatus comprising a body control unit configured to transmit body-side initialization execution element information indicating a plurality of body-side elemen

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Okada Aguri

Classifications

• H04N23/663

  for controlling interchangeable camera parts based on electronic image sensor signals · CPC title

• H04N23/69

  Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming · CPC title

• H04N23/73 Primary

  by influencing the exposure time · CPC title

• H04N5/23209

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02B7/102

  controlled by a microcomputer (cameras with interchangeable lenses G03B17/14) · CPC title