Patent ID: 7206136

Claim:
An electronic camera for producing an output image of a scene, said electronic camera comprising: a first image sensor for generating a first sensor output; a first lens for forming a first image of the scene on the first image sensor, wherein the first lens has a fixed focal length; a second image sensor for generating a second sensor output; a zoom lens pointing in the same direction as the first lens and forming a second image of the same scene on the second image sensor, wherein the zoom lens is adjustable between a minimum focal length and a maximum focal length to provide the second image, wherein the first and second images formed on the first and second image sensors have different aspect ratios, including a panoramic aspect ratio for the first image sensor, and wherein the panoramic aspect ratio of the first image sensor is adjustable; a control element for selecting either the first sensor output from the first image sensor or the second sensor output from the second image sensor, thereby providing a selected sensor output; a first user control for enabling a panoramic mode and a second user control for setting a zoom position for the camera; and a processing section for producing the output image from the selected sensor output.