Imaging apparatus capable of performing intermittent image capturing operation, method for controlling the same, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017214837-A1
Application number	US-201715414259-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 24, 2017
Priority date	Jan 26, 2016
Publication date	Jul 27, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes a acquisition unit acquires a measurement luminance, an exposure control unit, and a setting unit sets a control luminance to be used for exposure controlling in an image capturing. In an interval shooting mode, if a measurement luminance of a second image capturing to be performed after a first image capturing is in a predetermined range based on, as a reference point, a control luminance of the first image capturing, the setting unit sets a control luminance of the second image capturing to be the same as the control luminance of the first image capturing. If the measurement luminance of the second image capturing is not in the predetermined range, the setting unit sets the control luminance of the second image capturing based on a calculation result by using the measurement luminance of the second image capturing and the control luminance of the first image capturing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An imaging apparatus capable of setting an interval shooting mode for causing an imaging unit to perform intermittent image capturing operations to acquire a moving image constituted by a plurality of images sequentially acquired through the intermittent image capturing operations, the imaging apparatus comprising:
a luminance acquisition unit configured to acquire a real measurement luminance by performing photometry on a subject; an exposure control unit configured to perform exposure control processing; and a luminance setting unit configured to set a control luminance to be used when the exposure control unit performs exposure control processing in an image capturing operation; wherein in the interval shooting mode, if a real measurement luminance acquired in response to a second image capturing operation to be performed after a first image capturing operation is in a predetermined range based on, as a reference point, a control luminance used in the first image capturing operation, the luminance setting unit sets a control luminance to be used in the second image capturing operation to be substantially the same as the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation, and wherein if the real measurement luminance acquired in response to the second image capturing operation is not in the predetermined range, the luminance setting unit sets the control luminance to be used in the second image capturing operation based on a calculation result obtainable by using the real measurement luminance acquired in response to the second image capturing operation and the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation.

2 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the luminance setting unit sets the control luminance to be used in the second image capturing operation by mixing a setting luminance having been set by performing first processing based on the real measurement luminance acquired by the luminance acquisition unit in response to the second image capturing operation, in the interval shooting mode, and the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation, at a predetermined rate.

3 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein if the real measurement luminance acquired in response to the second image capturing operation is in the predetermined range based on, as the reference point, the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation, the first processing sets the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation as the setting luminance, and if the real measurement luminance acquired in response to the second image capturing operation is not in the predetermined range based on, as the reference point, the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation, the first processing sets the real measurement luminance acquired in response to the second image capturing operation as the setting luminance.

4 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the luminance setting unit changes the predetermined rate according to an image capturing interval between intermittent image capturing operations in the interval shooting mode.

5 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein in determining the predetermined rate, a relatively smaller weighting degree is applied to the real measurement luminance when the image capturing interval is a first image capturing interval and a relatively greater weighting degree is applied to the real measurement luminance when the image capturing interval is a second image capturing interval, which is shorter than the first image capturing interval.

6 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:
a scene determination unit configured to determine a scene in an image capturing operation;
wherein the luminance setting unit sets the predetermined range based on a determination result obtained by the scene determination unit, in the interval shooting mode.

7 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein in the interval shooting mode, the predetermined range is relatively narrower when the scene determination unit determines that the scene includes a larger number of luminance changes occurring between intermittent image capturing operations and the predetermined range is relatively wider when the scene determination unit determines that the scene includes a smaller number of luminance changes occurring between intermittent image capturing operations.

8 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the scene determination unit determines the scene in the image capturing operation based on at least one of information acquirable from an acquired image, such as luminance, color, and subject detection result and information about a distance between the imaging apparatus and the subject.

9 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the luminance setting unit sets a first luminance acquired by the luminance acquisition unit as a second luminance in an initial image capturing operation when the imaging apparatus performs intermittent image capturing operations in the interval shooting mode.

10 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the luminance acquisition unit acquires a first luminance in response to the second image capturing operation in an image capturing interval between the first image capturing operation and the second image capturing operation, at timing adjacent to the second image capturing operation than a midpoint of the image capturing interval, in the interval shooting mode.

11 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the exposure control unit performs exposure control processing for each intermittent image capturing operation in the interval shooting mode.

12 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the luminance acquisition unit acquires a first luminance based on the luminance of each block when the acquired image is divided into a plurality of blocks.

13 . An imaging apparatus capable of setting an interval shooting mode for causing an imaging unit to perform intermittent image capturing operations to acquire a moving image constituted by a plurality of images sequentially acquired through the intermittent image capturing operations, the imaging apparatus comprising:
a luminance acquisition unit configured to acquire a real measurement luminance by performing photometry on an subject; an exposure control unit configured to perform exposure control processing; a luminance setting unit configured to set a setting luminance by causing the luminance acquisition unit to perform first processing based on a real measurement luminance acquired in response to a second image capturing operation to be performed after a first image capturing operation, in the interval shooting mode; and a luminance calculation unit configured to calculate a control luminance to be used when the exposure control unit performs exposure control processing in an image capturing operation; wherein the luminance calculation unit calculates the control luminance to be used in the second image capturing operation by performing second processing for mixing the setting luminance having been set by performing the first processing and the control luminance used in the first image capturing operation, at a predetermined rate, and wherein in the interval shooting mode, the first processing includes determining whether the real measurement luminance acquired in response to the second image capturing operation is in a predetermined range based on, as a reference point, the control luminance used in the first image capturing ope

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Tamura Yusuke

Classifications

• H04N23/71

  Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation · CPC title

• H04N23/72 Primary

  Combination of two or more compensation controls · CPC title

• H04N23/667

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

• H04N23/951 Primary

  by using two or more images to influence resolution, frame rate or aspect ratio · CPC title

• H04N23/743

  Bracketing, i.e. taking a series of images with varying exposure conditions · CPC title