Television – Special applications – Film – disc or card scanning
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-08
2001-04-17
Kelley, Chris (Department: 2713)
Television
Special applications
Film, disc or card scanning
Reexamination Certificate
active
06219092
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus for converting images recorded on a film such as a movie film into video signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a telecine apparatus is known as an apparatus for converting images recorded on a movie film into video signals. There are two types of telecine apparatuses. One type is of feeding a movie film continuously. The other type is of feeding a movie film intermittently. For example, in an intermittent feeding type telecine apparatus, a movie film is fed frame by frame intermittently. One frame of the images recorded on the movie film is positioned on an optical axis of a lens of a camera part. Light from a light source is irradiated to the movie film to cause light transmitted therethrough to be incident on a video part. One frame of the images recorded on the movie film is picked up by the video part. After picking up one frame of the images, the movie film is fed and the next frame is positioned in the optical axis of the lens, and the same image pickup as set forth above is repeated. In such a telecine appratus, process of converting images recorded on a movie film into video signals is performed in real time for example by moving the movie film by 24 frames per second.
In the telecine apparatus described above, as an image pickup means in the camera part, an image pickup device such as a CCD (charge coupled device) is utilized. In such case, resolution of video signals obtained therethrough is limited by the number of pixels in the image pickup device.
In recent years, in the field of movie production, image processing is performed after converting images recorded on a film into video signals. In this field, high resolution and high picture quality are also required for video signals obtained from images recorded on a film. For this task, the number of pixels in CCD is not sufficient. Therefore, a telecine apparatus has a problem that it is also insufficient in resolution to be used for movie production which requires high resolution.
On the other hand, in the field of movie production described above or the like which requires high resolution and high picture quality, as an apparatus for converting images recorded on a movie film to video signals, a super high picture quality image pickup device called film scanner is utilized. In the film scanner, different from telecine apparatus, process of converting images recorded on a movie film into video signals is not performed in real time, but rather, by spending a sufficiently longer time.
However, a film scanner has a problem that it is expensive in particular in image pickup system in order to realize super high picture quality. Also, in a film scanner, of course, it is impossible to convert images recorded on a movie film into video signals in real time as in a telecine apparatus.
Therefore, there is a problem that those who sometimes want to convert pictures recorded on a movie film into video signals in real time and sometimes want to convert pictures recorded on a movie film into video signals with high resolution must provide both telecine apparatus and expensive film scanner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of these problems, and the object of the invention is to provide an image pickup apparatus which can implement, with one single apparatus, process of converting images recorded on a film such as a movie film into video signals in real time and process of converting images recorded on a film into video signals with high resolution.
An image pickup apparatus for image film according to the invention comprises a film feeding means capable of intermittently feeding a film on which information including image information is recored so as to intermittently stop each frame of the film at a predetermined image pickup position, a light irradiating means for irradiating light to the frame of the film stopped at the image pickup position, an image pickup means for picking up an image of the frame of the film which stopped at the image pickup position and to which light is irradiated by said light irradiating means and for converting the image into a video signal, an optical axis position moving means capable of moving an optical axis position of a light from the frame of the film stopped at the image pickup position to the image pickup means, and a control means for controlling said film feeding means, image pickup means and optical axis position moving means and capable of selecting a first operation mode in which said film is intermittently fed by said film feeding means and images of respective frames of said film are sequentially picked up by the image pickup means, and a second operation mode in which, to the same frame of said film stopped at the image pickup position, a plurality of optical axis positions are selected with said optical axis position moving means, and, for respective optical axis positions, the image of the frame is picked up by the image pickup means.
In an image pickup apparatus according to the invention, the first operation mode or the second operation mode is selected by the control means. In the first operation mode, a film is intermittently fed by a film feeding means and images of respective frames of the film are sequentially picked up by the image pickup means. Thus, process of converting images recorded on the film into video signals in real time can be performed. In the second operation mode, to the same frame of a film stopped at an image pickup position, a plurality of optical axis positions are selected with the optical axis position moving means, and, for respective optical axis positions, image of the frame is picked up by the image pickup means, thereby enabling process of converting images recorded on the movie film into video signals with high resolution to be performed.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5644356 (1997-07-01), Swinson et al.
patent: 5729284 (1998-03-01), Ishii et al.
patent: 5745214 (1998-04-01), Yokonuma et al.
patent: 5751343 (1998-05-01), Hibino et al.
patent: 5808667 (1998-09-01), Sugiyama
patent: 5864362 (1999-01-01), Cutler
patent: 5889553 (1999-03-01), Kino et al.
patent: 6018363 (2000-01-01), Horii
Frommer William S.
Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP.
Kelley Chris
Savit Glenn F.
Sony Corporation
LandOfFree
Image pickup apparatus for image film does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Image pickup apparatus for image film, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Image pickup apparatus for image film will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2481120