IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS

Abstract

An image capturing apparatus includes a calculation unit which converts shaking detected by a sensor unit into a shaking cancel amount, a correction/driving unit which drives a correction unit using the shaking cancel amount in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis, and corrects blurring of an image formed on an image capturing unit, a zoom position detection unit which detects the current zoom position of a zoom lens, and a center point change unit which changes a center point serving as a movable center of the correction unit in accordance with the zoom position set at either end of the zoom range, or an arbitrary position therebetween. This enables a position of a correction unit to be set which allows optimal image visibility and image blurring correction irrespective of the zoom state.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the circuit arrangement of an image capturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the circuit arrangement of the main part of the image capturing apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are graphs each showing a decrease in light amount at the periphery according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are views showing luminance center and mechanical center calculation methods according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a graph showing the driving of a shift lens at the time of zoom driving according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation for changing the center of the shift lens in accordance with the zoom position according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation when the zoom position is in the middle range between the wide-angled end and the telephoto end in step S609 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation for switching an interpolation scheme in the middle range between the wide-angled end and the telephoto end between a still image mode and moving image mode in FIGS. 6 and 7.

Claims

1. An image capturing apparatus which includes sensor unit configured to detect shaking,calculation unit configured to convert the shaking detected by the sensor unit into a shaking cancel amount,correction/driving unit configured to drive correction unit using the shaking cancel amount in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis, and to correct blurring of an image formed on image capturing unit, andzoom position detection unit configured to detect a current zoom position of a zoom lens, comprising:center point change unit configured to change a center point serving as a movable center of the correction unit in accordance with a zoom position set at either end of the zoom range, or at an arbitrary position therebetween.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the correction unit is set at a first center point, when a light amount of a periphery is made uniform, at either end of the zoom range,the correction unit is set at a second center point located at a center of a driving limit range at the other end of the zoom range, andthe correction unit is set at a center point calculated by interpolation between the first center point and the second center point at the arbitrarily set zoom position.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one end of the zoom range is a wide-angled end and the other is a telephoto end.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interpolation calculation indicates calculation of linear interpolation between two points, focal length interpolation between two points, or a combination of the linear interpolation and the focal length interpolation.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein one of the linear interpolation calculation and the focal length interpolation calculation is selected in accordance with whether a still image capturing mode or a moving image capturing mode is set.

6. An image capturing apparatus from which a lens is detachable and which includes sensor unit configured to detect shaking,correction/driving unit configured to drive correction unit in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis in accordance with the shaking detected by the sensor unit, and correcting blurring of an image formed on image capturing unit, andzoom position detection unit configured to detect a current zoom position of a zoom lens, comprising:change designation unit configured to change a center point serving as a movable center of the correction unit in accordance with a zoom position set at either end of the zoom range, or at an arbitrary position therebetween.