Digital camera for recording object scene image with image quality adjusting value

Claim 2

A digital camera that subjects a photographed image signal to an image quality adjustment process on the basis of an image quality adjustment value set to a memory, comprising: a recorder for recording into a recording medium an image file including the photographed image signal which has been subject to the image quality adjustment process and the image quality adjustment value set to said memory upon receipt of a recording instruction, wherein said image quality adjustment value stored on said recording medium is capable of being transferred with said image file to another device; a determiner for determining whether or not the image quality adjustment value included in said image file is changed; and an overwriter for overwriting the image quality adjustment value set to said memory with the image quality adjustment value included in said image file depending upon a determination result of said determiner so as to reflect a new written image quality adjustment value on the image quality adjustment process which is directed to a photographed image signal to be obtained after an over-writing process.

Claim 3

A digital camera according to claim 1 , wherein said determiner determines that said image quality adjustment value is changed when a specific marker is included in said image file.

Claim 4

A digital camera according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the image quality adjustment values which respectively correspond to a plurality of image quality adjustment modes are set to said memory, said recorder includes a creator for creating a file header including image quality adjustment mode information and the image quality adjustment value, and a file recorder for recording into said recording medium an image file including the file header and the photographed image signal, and said overwriter includes a specifier for specifying the image quality adjustment value to be overwritten from said memory on the basis of the image quality adjustment mode information included in the file header, an image quality adjustment value overwriter for overwriting the image quality adjustment value specified by said specifier by the image quality adjustment value included in said file header.

Claim 5

A digital camera according to claim 1 , wherein said recording medium is detachable.

Claim 6

A digital camera according to claim 1 , wherein said another device is a computer.

Claim 7

An image quality control method of a digital camera that subjects a photographed image signal to an image quality adjustment process on the basis of an image quality adjustment value set to a memory, comprising the steps of: (a) recording into a recording medium an image file including the photographed image signal which has been subject to the image quality adjustment process and the image quality adjustment value set to said memory upon receipt of a recording instruction, wherein said image quality adjustment value stored on said recording medium is capable of being transferred with said image file to another device; (b) determining whether or not the image quality adjustment value included in said image file is changed; and (c) overwriting the image quality adjustment value set to said memory with the image quality adjustment value included in said image file depending upon a determination result of said step (b) so as to reflect a new written image quality adjustment value on the image quality adjustment process which is directed to a photographed image signal to be obtained after an over-writing process.

Claim 8

An image quality control method of a digital camera that subjects a photographed image signal to an image quality adjustment process on the basis of an image quality adjustment value set to a memory, comprising the steps of: (a) recording into a recording medium an image file including the photographed image signal which has been subject to the image quality adjustment process and the image quality adjustment value set to said memory upon receipt of a recording instruction, wherein said image quality adjustment value stored on said recording medium is capable of being transferred with said image file to another device; (b) determining whether or not the image quality adjustment value included in said image file is changed; and (c) overwriting the image quality adjustment value set to said memory with the image quality adjustment value included in said image file depending upon a determination result of said step (b) so as to reflect a new written image quality adjustment value on the image quality adjustment process which is directed to a photographed image signal to be obtained after an over-writing process.

Claim 9

An image quality control method according to claim 6 , wherein said another device is a computer.

Claim 10

A digital camera, comprising: an imaging device for creating an object scene image; a memory for storing an image quality adjusting value; an adjuster for adjusting an image quality of the object scene image created by said imaging device based on the image quality adjusting value stored in said memory; a recorder for recording to a recording medium an image file including the object scene image having the image quality adjusted by said adjuster and the image quality adjusting value stored in said memory in case of accepting a recording instruction; an accepter for accepting a selecting operation to select a specific image file including a specific image quality adjusting value changed by an external apparatus from among image files recorded in said recording medium in association with a setting of a specific mode; a reproducer for reproducing the object scene image included in the specific image file selected by said selecting operation; and an over-writer for writing the specific image quality adjusting value included in the specific image file noted by said reproducer over the image quality adjusting value stored in said memory so as to reflect the specific image quality adjusting value on an adjusting process of said adjuster which is directed to an object scene image to be created by said imaging device after an over-writing process.

Claim 11

A digital camera, comprising: an imaging device for creating an object scene image; a memory for storing an image quality adjusting value; an adjuster for adjusting an image quality of the object scene image created by said imaging device based on the image quality adjusting value stored in said memory; a recorder for recording to a recording medium an image file including the object scene image having the image quality adjusted by said adjuster and the image quality adjusting value stored in said memory in case of accepting a recording instruction; an accepter for accepting a selecting operation to select a specific image file including a specific image quality adjusting value changed by an external apparatus from among image files recorded in said recording medium in association with a setting of a specific mode; a reproducer for reproducing the object scene image included in the specific image file selected by said selecting operation; and an over-writer for writing the specific image quality adjusting value included in the specific image file noted by said reproducer over the image quality adjusting value stored in said memory so as to reflect the specific image quality adjusting value on an adjusting process of said adjuster which is directed to an object scene image to be created by said imaging device after an over-writing process.

Claim 12

A digital camera according to claim 8 , further comprising a determiner for determining whether or not the image file selected by said selecting operation is the specific image file, wherein said over-writer carries out a writing process when a determination result of said determiner is affirmative.

Claim 13

A digital camera according to claim 9 , wherein said reproducer carries out a reproducing process without respect to the determination result of said determiner.

Claim 14

A digital camera according to claim 9 , wherein the specific image file has a specific marker, and said determiner carries out a determining process in reference to the specific marker.

Claim 15

A digital camera according to claim 8 , wherein said memory stores a plurality of the image quality adjusting values respectively corresponding to a plurality of image quality adjusting modes, said recorder includes a creator for creating a file header including image quality adjusting mode information and an image quality adjusting value which are corresponding to each other, and a file recorder for recording to said recording medium the image file including the file header and the object scene image, and said over-writer includes a specifier for specifying an image quality adjusting value to be overwritten from among the plurality of image quality adjusting values stored in said memory based on the image quality adjusting mode information included in the file header, and an image quality adjusting value over-writer for writing the image quality adjusting value included in the file header over the image quality adjusting value specified by said specifier.

Claim 16

A digital camera according to claim 8 , wherein the object scene image included in the specific image file has an image quality based on the specific image quality adjusting value.

Claim 17

A digital camera according to claim 8 , wherein said recording medium is detachable, and said external apparatus is an apparatus capable of attaching said recording medium.