Imaging apparatus and method for capturing a group of images composed of a plurality of images and displaying them in review display form

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9843731-B2
Application number	US-201314139015-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2013
Priority date	Dec 27, 2012
Publication date	Dec 12, 2017
Grant date	Dec 12, 2017

Abstract

An imaging apparatus capable of performing image display that allows a user to more effectively check images of a group composed of a plurality of images generated in response to a single shooting instruction, includes a control unit configured to perform control to cause an imaging unit to generate a plurality of images in response to a single shooting instruction, and a display control unit configured to, as automatically performed review display after shooting in response to the shooting instruction, perform control to sequentially display the plurality of generated images one by one on a display unit, and then display the plurality of images in a multi-display form on the same screen.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:
an imaging unit;
a memory configured to store an imaging program; and
a system control unit communicatively-coupled to the memory configured to execute the imaging program to:
perform control to cause the imaging unit to shoot a plurality of images in response to a single shooting instruction;
perform control to generate a set of images from the plurality of images and record each image in the generated set of images as individual image files in response to the same single shooting instruction; and
perform control to automatically perform review display of the generated set of images in response to the same single shooting instruction,
wherein the automatically performed review display includes
(a) sequentially displaying each image of the generated set of images in a single image display form on a display unit, wherein in the single image display form each image of the generated set of images is switched from one to another, and then,
(b) displaying the generated set of images in a multi-image display form, wherein in the multi-image display form each image of the generated set of images are displayed on a same screen of the display unit without displaying any live view image and any image shot in response to any shooting instruction other than the single shooting instruction,
wherein each image of the generated set of images displayed in the single image display form is displayed in a larger size on the display unit than each image of the generated set of images displayed in the multi-image display form.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, in the multi-image display form, the system control unit performs control to enlarge or reduce each image in the generated set of images so that each image fits into any one of a plurality of areas having sizes including different sizes to display the generated set of images on the same screen.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
the system control unit performing control to set the imaging apparatus to any one of a plurality of operation modes including at least a shooting mode and a reproduction mode,
wherein, in the reproduction mode, the system control unit performs control to enlarge or reduce each image in the generated set of images so that each image fits into any one of a plurality of areas having the same size to display the generated set of images on the same screen.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, in the multi-display form, the system control unit performs control to enlarge or reduce each image in the generated set of images so that each image fits into any one of a plurality of areas not arranged in matrix form to display the generated set of images on the same screen.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising:
the system control unit performs control to set the imaging apparatus to any one of a plurality of operation modes including at least a shooting mode and a reproduction mode,
wherein, in the reproduction mode, the system control unit performs control to enlarge or reduce each image in the generated set of images so that each image fits into any one of a plurality of areas arranged in matrix form to display the generated set of images in the multi-display form on the same screen.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the system control unit performs control to end the multi-image display form when a predetermined time duration has elapsed.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the predetermined time duration is the time duration measured since the image display is started.

8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein, when a predetermined user operation is performed during displaying in the multi-image display form, the control performed does not end the display in the multi-display form even when the predetermined time duration has elapsed.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the system control unit performs control to enlarge a user-selected image out of the generated set of images displayed in the multi-image display form to a larger size than the size in the multi-image display form, and to display the user-selected image on the display unit, and
wherein, when the user-selected image is displayed, control is performed to accept user operations for instructing processing on the displayed user-selected image.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein, in a state where the user-selected image is displayed on the display unit, in response to a user operation, the system control unit performs control to change the currently displayed image to any image of the generated set of images without changing the currently displayed image to any image other than one included in the generated set of images.

11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, in the multi-display form, after any one of the generated set of images displayed in the multi-image display form has been deleted, control is performed that does not change the display position and size of any other images other than the deleted image from those before the deletion.

12. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, in response to the single shooting instruction, the system control unit performs control to capture a plurality of images with at least one shooting method out of a plurality of shooting methods including exposure-bracket shooting and focus-bracket shooting based on analysis of the captured plurality of images.

13. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, the system control unit performs control to apply different image processing to the images captured in response to the single shooting instruction to generate the set of images.

14. The imaging apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the image processing includes at least color processing or trimming processing.

15. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
the system control unit performs control to change the imaging apparatus to any one of a plurality of shooting modes including a specific shooting mode to perform shooting to generate the set of images in response to a single shooting instruction,
wherein, in the specific shooting mode, control is performed to display a remaining number of issuable shooting instructions together with a through image based on a remaining capacity of a recording medium for recording images.

16. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in response to an image advancing operation in a reproduction mode, control is performed to advance images of any one group including a group composed of the generated set of images, by using a representative image,
wherein, in a state where the representative image is displayed, when an instruction for displaying each image belonging to the group is issued, control is performed to change the display of the representative image to another image of the generated set of images belonging to the group on the same screen.

17. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, when the display control unit sequentially displays the generated set of images in such a way as to switch the generated set of images from one to another in a single display form, the display control unit displays each of the generated set of images in full-screen on the display.

18. The imaging apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein, when display control unit displays each of the generated set of images in full-screen on th

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Shimosato Jiro

Classifications

• H04N23/632 Primary

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

• H04N23/531

  being rotatable or detachable · CPC title

• H04N23/633

  for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera · CPC title

• H04N1/0044 Primary

  for image preview or review, e.g. to help the user position a sheet · CPC title