Patent ID: 7388607
Filing Date: 2008-06-17
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A digital still camera comprising: an image pickup device for photographing a subject; and an image processor adapted to drive and control the image pickup device, to process photographic signals outputted from the image pickup device and to record the processed images in a recorder, said image processor comprising a digitally zooming unit for selecting a part of a photographic image plane photographed by the image pickup device and digitally zooming said part of the image, said image pickup device possessing two or more driving modes having respectively different numbers of pixels to be read out from the image pickup device, and said digital still camera enabling at least either one of monitoring in which restricted pixels are read out from the image pickup device and moving image recording, wherein the driving mode of the image pickup device is so selected as to maintain a resolution obtainable at the number of pixels in the monitoring or that in the moving image recording, said driving mode comprises a draft mode in which a renewal rate of image planes is so set as to not hinder framing and a frame readout mode in which all pixels are read out, said image pickup device is driven in said draft mode in said monitoring mode and moving image recording, the driving mode of the image pickup device is changed from the draft mode to the frame readout mode when the digital zooming is effected by said digitally zooming unit in said monitoring mode or moving image recording, and given pixels are selected as a digitally zoomed image plane from one field read out in the frame readout mode.