Camera apparatus with fluctuation suppressing means

Claim 1

A camera apparatus operable in an automatic panning mode in which an image taking direction is smoothly changed in a panning direction, comprising: focusing means for optically focusing a beam of light from an object to form an optical image of the object; imaging means, optically coupled to said focusing means, for converting the optical image into electrical or physicochemical information and issuing or recording the information as an image; fluctuation detecting means for detecting an angular velocity of a fluctuation of said camera apparatus and issuing a fluctuation detecting signal indicative of the thus detected angular velocity; control signal issuing means, responsive to the fluctuation detecting signal, for issuing an image fluctuation control signal; and, fluctuation suppressing means, responsive to the image fluctuation control signal, for changing an image taking direction so as to suppress a fluctuation of the image due to the fluctuation of said camera apparatus, wherein said control signal issuing means comprises: (a) constant signal generating means for generating a specific constant signal in the automatic panning mode; (b) adding means for adding the specific constant signal and the fluctuation detecting signal; and, (c) means for integrating an output signal of the adding means to obtain the image fluctuation control signal; wherein said fluctuation suppressing means includes means for changing the image taking direction substantially at a constant angular velocity proportional to the specific constant signal with respect to an absolute coordinate system in the automatic panning mode.