Image capturing apparatus, control method thereof, and recording medium storing program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11477376-B2
Application number	US-202016849841-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2020
Priority date	Apr 23, 2019
Publication date	Oct 18, 2022
Grant date	Oct 18, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to preventing an operation from being performed in an operation mode that is not intended by a user. In an image capturing apparatus, a moving image lever is an operation member for issuing an instruction to change an operation mode to a moving image capturing mode that is a state where a moving image is recordable. In order to avoid unintentional change of the operation mode to the moving image capturing mode due to an erroneous operation on the moving image lever, a setting is made to enable and disable an instruction that is issued by operating the moving image lever. If the setting is changed to “disable” while the image capturing apparatus is operating in the moving image capturing mode, a microcomputer changes an operation mode to a still image capturing mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image capturing apparatus comprising:
a user operation member configured to issue an instruction to change an operation mode of the image capturing apparatus; and
at least one memory and at least one processor, the processor being configured to:
set a restriction state where changing the operation mode to a first operation mode of the image capturing apparatus by operating the user operation member is restricted; and
perform control to change the operation mode to a second operation mode of the image capturing apparatus different from the first operation mode in a case where the restriction state is set when the operation mode is set to the first operation mode.

2. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the user operation member is moved to a position corresponding to one of a plurality of operation modes including the first operation mode and the second operation mode, and
wherein the processor performs control to change the operation mode to the second operation mode in a case where the restriction state is when the user operation member is at a position corresponding to the first operation mode and the operation mode is set to the first operation mode.

3. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor performs control to change the operation mode to the second operation mode along with restart processing to restart the electronic apparatus in a case where the processor changes a state to the restriction state while the electronic apparatus is operating in the first operation mode.

4. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the processor blacks out a screen display when the restart processing is performed.

5. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the operation mode is changeable to the first operation mode in response to an instruction that is different from the instruction issued by operating the user operation member even while the restriction state is set.

6. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the instruction that is different is an instruction issued by a remote operation.

7. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an image sensor.

8. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the first operation mode is a moving image capturing mode in which the image sensor captures a moving image.

9. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the second operation mode is a still image capturing mode in which the image sensor captures a still image.

10. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the processor drives a mirror to change a state from a state where a live view is captured using the image sensor to a state where a subject image is checked using an optical finder, when the processor changes the operation mode to the second operation mode.

11. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the processor closes a shutter while changing the operation mode to the second operation mode.

12. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the user operation member is a lever to be moved to a predetermined position to issue an instruction to change the operation mode to the first operation mode.

13. A method of controlling an image capturing apparatus that includes user operation member configured to issue an instruction to change an operation mode of the image capturing apparatus, the method comprising:
setting a restriction state where changing the operation mode to a first operation mode of the image capturing by operating the user operation member is restricted; and
performing control to change the operation mode to a second operation mode of the image capturing apparatus different from the first operation mode in a case where the restriction state is set when the operation mode is set to the first operation mode.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for causing a computer to function as the processor of the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 .

15. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a display; and
a finder independent of the display,
wherein an image is not visually recognizable using the finder but is visually recognizable with the display in the first operation mode, and an image is visually recognizable using the finder in the second operation mode.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Fukushima Yuki

Classifications

• H04N23/65 Primary

  Control of camera operation in relation to power supply · CPC title

• H04N23/667 Primary

  Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes · CPC title

• H04N23/62

  Control of parameters via user interfaces · CPC title

• H04N23/632

  for displaying or modifying preview images prior to image capturing, e.g. variety of image resolutions or capturing parameters · CPC title

• H04N23/631

  Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters · CPC title