A minimized camcorder including a knob for a mode-changing device. The camcorder includes a knob rotatably installed on a case. A knob holder is provided for holding the knob on the inside of the case to prevent the knob from separating from the case. A plate spring is installed inside the case and has locking swells to provide tactile feedback. A ring plate rotates together with the knob holder and has locking parts formed with a plurality of holes into which the locking swells are locked.

An anti-shake-apparatus comprises a movable-unit, a fixed-unit, a signal-processor, and a controller. The movable-unit has an imaging-device and is movable in first-and second-directions. The fixed-unit has a hall-element-unit. The controller controls the movable-unit, the fixed-unit, and the signal-processor, and has first- and second-A/D-converters. The hall-element-unit has first and second horizontal-hall-elements for detecting a first-location, and first and second vertical-hall-elements fo...

An anti-shake apparatus of a photographing apparatus comprises a movable unit and a fixed unit. The movable unit has an imaging device and is movable in first and second directions. The fixed unit slidably supports the movable unit in both the first and second directions. The movable unit has a hall-element unit. The magnetic-field change-detecting unit has a horizontal hall-element which is used for detecting a position of the movable unit in the first direction as a first location, and a verti...

A digital camera and a image signal generating method capable of generating both an image signal for displaying an object image and additional information on a display component. and an image signal to be supplied to a connected external display device, with a simple configuration. Video additional information data is generated which includes in the period corresponding to the horizontal blanking period of the composite video signal digital data representing additional information to be displaye...

A solid-state image-taking system including a gate voltage control unit 31 and a substrate voltage control unit 32, for preventing generation of a defective image such as a residual image, without increasing the read voltage. The gate voltage control unit 31 applies the read voltage to the gate electrode 17 during the read period. The substrate voltage control unit 32 applies a stationary reverse bias voltage steadily to the semiconductor substrate 11 to cause electric charge excessively stored ...

Uncorrelated noise is reduced in image data. To achieve this, CCD-RAW data, in which color components are output in order in accordance with an array of color filters that have been formed on the photoreceptor surface of a CCD, is subjected to array conversion processing in such a manner that the data is divided into its color components. Image data indicating pixels within a noise-reduction target area of 5.times.5 pixels is extracted from the CCD-RAW data obtained by the array conversion. A fi...

An electronic image stabilizer in a digital camera compensates for camera motion-induced blurriness by segmenting exposure times into multiple shorter exposure times and summing the individual pixels from successive frames after applying an appropriate motion correction. Motion is detected by computing the correlation function between successive images, and compensation is applied by maximizing the correlation function. This avoids the need for mechanical stabilization devices in order to detect...

The lens moving mechanism may be a cam structure. The cam structure is set so that the rotation axis of the lens is held at the center of the dome in a predetermined center hold angle range corresponding to the direction of an elevation angle, and that the rotation axis of the lens is moved from the center of the dome in the zenith direction at angles lower than the center hold angle range. Good images can be obtained even when shooting in the direction of a depression angle.

A solid-state imaging apparatus comprises a semiconductor substrate, a multiplicity of photo electric conversion elements, a vertical electric charge transfer device having a plurality of vertical electric charge transfer channels and transfer electrodes, reading out parts and a driving device that imposes a first voltage to the reading out electrode for reading out the accumulated signal electric charge from the photo electric conversion elements to the transfer channels in a reading out period...

A solid-state imaging apparatus comprises a semiconductor substrate, a multiplicity of photo electric conversion elements, a vertical electric charge transfer device having a plurality of vertical electric charge transfer channels and transfer electrodes, reading out parts and a driving device that imposes a first voltage to the reading out electrode for reading out the accumulated signal electric charge from the photo electric conversion elements to the transfer channels in a reading out period...