Patent ID: 7110027

Claim:
An electronic camera apparatus, comprising: an electronic optical sensing apparatus, said electronic optical sensing apparatus sensing optical images and converting sensed images to an electronic signal; a buffer memory; a video storage medium interface for storing video images captured by said optical sensing apparatus on a storage medium; and a controller which operates said electronic camera apparatus in at least one mode, said at least one mode including a first mode wherein said controller concurrently: (a) causes said video storage medium interface to store motion video captured by said optical sensing apparatus on a video storage medium at a first resolution, and (b) temporarily stores video frames captured by said optical sensing apparatus in said buffer memory; wherein said controller, responsive to a first user command, saves at least one frame being temporarily stored in said buffer memory in a persistent form at a second resolution, said second resolution being finer than said first resolution, said first user command being received after said electronic optical sensing apparatus captures said at least one frame being saved; and wherein said controller automatically deletes each respective said video frame captured by said optical sensing apparatus from said buffer memory without saving the respective said video frame in a persistent form at said second resolution if a said first user command for saving the respective said video frame is not received before a pre-determined event occurs; wherein said controller, responsive to said first user command, saves a user-selectable portion of the contents of said buffer memory in a persistent form at said second resolution, said user-selectable portion being potentially less than all of the buffer contents; and wherein said user-selectable portion of the contents of said buffer is determined by playing the contents of said buffer back to the user on a display of said camera, and receiving a user selection corresponding to a beginning frame to be saved in said persistent form.