United States Patent p9]
Ejima et al.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
US005412424A
[ii] Patent Number: 5,412,424 [45] Date of Patent: May 2,1995
[54] ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA WITH
MULTI-AREA LIGHT METERING AND
MULTI-DEGREE IMAGE SIGNAL
CONTOUR ENHANCEMENT
[75] Inventors: Satoshi Ejima, Tokyo; Masahiro Suzuki, Yokohama, both of Japan
[73] Assignee: Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
[21] Appl. No.: 38,069
[22] Filed: Mar. 29,1993
Related U.S. Application Data
[60] Continuation of Ser. No. 738,605, Jul. 31, 1991, abandoned, which is a division of Ser. No. 581,879, Sep. 13, 1990, Pat. No. 5,070,405.
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Sep. 19, 1989 [JP] Japan 1-242507
Sep. 19, 1989 [JP] Japan 1-242508
[51] Int. CI.« H04N 5/335
[52] U.S. CI 348/252; 348/207
[58] Field of Search 358/209, 909, 219, 228,
358/161,168, 169,160, 213.27; 354/432; H04N 5/225, 5/30; 382/22, 21; 348/252, 207, 223,
224, 222
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
3,783,190 1/1974 Gaebele 358/162
4,437,111 3/1984 Inai et al 358/44
4,489,349 12/1984 Okada 358/168
4,670,788 6/1987 Ozaki 358/164
4,686,562 8/1987 Yamanaka 358/32
4,817,174 3/1989 Nakatani 382/22
4,827,332 5/1989 Miyake et al 358/29
4,899,212 2/1990 Kaneko et al : 358/29
4,918,519 4/1990 Suzuki et al 358/29
4,974,007 11/1990 Yoshida 354/402
4,979,024 12/1990 Misawa et al 358/37
5,073,959 12/1991 Sugiura et al 382/22
Primary Examiner—Joseph Mancuso
Assistant Examiner—Tuan V. Ho
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Shapiro and Shapiro
[57] ABSTRACT
An electronic still camera for recording stationary images comprises a light metering device for light-metering a plurality of portions of an object to be photographed and outputting a plurality of signals corresponding to the quantities of light of the portions, an image pickup device for converting the image of the object to be photographed into an image signal, a contour enhancing device provided with a plurality of selectable contour enhancement degrees and enhancing the contour of the image signal, and a selecting device for effecting calculation on the basis of the outputs from the light metering device and selecting one of the plurality of contour enhancement degrees provided in the contour enhancing device on the basis of the result of the calculation.
20 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets
