Image processing apparatus

Abstract

An electronic camera includes: an image capturing device that performs photoelectric conversion on a subject image formed by a photographic optical system and outputs image data; an image display device that displays an image based upon the image data; a first storage device achieving a first access speed; a second storage device achieving a second access speed lower than the first access speed; and a control device that, if image data for display are present in the first storage device when an image reproduction mode for displaying the image based upon the image data at the image display device is set, displays an image based upon the image data in the first storage device at the image display device, and if the image data for display are not present in the first storage device, displays an image based upon image data in the second storage device at the image display device.

1 . An electronic camera comprising: 
 an image capturing device that performs photoelectric conversion on a subject image formed by a photographic optical system and outputs image data;    an image display device that displays an image based upon image data;    a first storage device achieving a first access speed and storing image data output from the image capturing device after being captured;    a second storage device achieving a second access speed lower than the first access speed and storing image data output from the first storage device;    the first storage device holding the image data output from the image capturing device even after the image data has been output from the first storage device to the second storage device; and    a control device that makes a decision as to whether or not image data for display are present in the first storage device when an image reproduction mode for displaying an image based upon image data at the image display device is set, displays at the image display device an image based upon image data read from the first storage device if the image data for display are present in the first storage device, and displays at the image display device an image based upon image data read from the second storage device if the image data for display are not present in the first storage device.    
   
   
       2 . An electronic camera according to  claim 1 , wherein: 
 the first storage device is a volatile storage device and the second storage device is a non-volatile storage device.    
   
   
       3 . An electronic camera comprising: 
 an image capturing device that performs photoelectric conversion on a subject image formed by a photographic optical system and outputs an image signal;    an image signal processing device that outputs image data obtained by performing a predetermined type of processing on the image signal;    a shutter release operation member operated to issue an instruction for a start of a photographing operation;    a photographing mode setting device that is operated to set a photographing mode which is either a single-shot photographing mode in which a single photographing operation is executed in response to one operation of said shutter release operation member or a continuous photographing mode which enables continuous execution of a plurality of photographing operations in response to a single operation of said shutter release operation member;    a volatile storage device in which a storage area is secured to temporarily store the image data output by said image signal processing device when said continuous photographing mode is set; and    a control device that stores a plurality of sets of image data obtained through a plurality of photographing operations in said storage area when said single-shot photographing mode is selected, and reproduces an image based upon the image data present in said storage area when a reproduction mode for reproducing images obtained through photographing is set.    
   
   
       4 . An electronic camera according to  claim 3 , wherein: 
 in said continuous photographing mode, a continuous photographing operation is performed in response to a sustained operation of said shutter release operation member.    
   
   
       5 . An electronic camera according to  claim 3 , wherein: 
 in said continuous photographing mode, a photographing operation is performed continuously over a specific number of times that is set in advance in response to a single operation of said shutter release operation member.    
   
   
       6 . An image processing apparatus comprising: 
 an image capturing device that performs photoelectric conversion on a subject image formed by a photographic optical system and outputs image data;    an image display device that displays an image based upon image data;    a temporary storage device that temporarily stores image data output from the image capturing device after being captured;    an image storage device that stores image data output from the temporary storage device and holds the data even when power to the image processing apparatus is turned off;    the temporary storage device holding the image data output from the image capturing device even after the image data has been output from the temporary storage to the image storage device;    a reproduction mode setting device that sets a reproduction mode for displaying an image based upon image data stored in the image storage device at the image display device; and    a control device that makes a decision as to whether or not image data for display are present in the temporary storage device when the reproduction mode is set by the reproduction mode setting device, displays at the image display device an image based upon image data read from the temporary storage device if the image data for display are present in the temporary storage device, displays at the image display device an image based upon image data read from the image storage device if the image data for display are not present in the temporary storage device.    
   
   
       7 . An image processing apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein: 
 an access time of the temporary storage device is shorter than an access time of the image storage device.    
   
   
       8 . An electronic camera according to  claim 1 , wherein: 
 the first storage device holds the image data output from the image capturing device to be overwritten.    
   
   
       9 . An electronic camera according to  claim 8 , wherein: 
 the first storage device overwrites oldest image data with most recent image data when the first storage device has become full for storing image data.    
   
   
       10 . An electronic camera according to  claim 6 , wherein: 
 the temporary storage device holds the image data output from the image capturing device to be overwritten.    
   
   
       11 . An electronic camera according to  claim 10 , wherein: 
 the temporary storage device overwrites oldest image data with most recent image data when the temporary storage device has become full for storing image data.    
   
   
       12 . An electronic camera according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a compressing device that compresses the image data output from the image capturing device, wherein the first storage device stores and holds the image data compressed by the compressing device.    
   
   
       13 . An electronic camera according to  claim 6 , further comprising: 
 a compressing device that compresses the image data output from the image capturing device, wherein the temporary storage device stores and holds the image data compressed by the compressing device.    
   
   
       14 . An electronic camera according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a thinning device that implements thinning processing on the image data output from the image capturing device, wherein the first storage device stores and holds the image data on which the thinning processing has been implemented by the thinning device.    
   
   
       15 . An electronic camera according to  claim 6 , further comprising: 
 a thinning device that implements thinning processing on the image data output from the image capturing device, wherein the temporary storage device stores and holds the image data on which the thinning processing has been implemented by the thinning device.