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Methods are provided for determining an operating parameter for an image system. Evaluation images are obtained during composition of an archival image and the evaluation images are stored. The evaluation images are compared to determine common image elements and an area of importance is determined

Methods are provided for determining an operating parameter for an image system. Evaluation images are obtained during composition of an archival image and the evaluation images are stored. The evaluation images are compared to determine common image elements and an area of importance is determined based at least in part upon some of the common image elements. An operating parameter is determined based upon analysis of the area of importance. Imaging systems that perform the methods are also provided.

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What is claimed is: 1. A method for determining an operating parameter for an imaging system, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a sequence of evaluation images during composition of an image; storing the evaluation images; comparing the evaluation images to determine common image elemen

What is claimed is: 1. A method for determining an operating parameter for an imaging system, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a sequence of evaluation images during composition of an image; storing the evaluation images; comparing the evaluation images to determine common image elements by comparing the most recently obtained evaluation image to other evaluation images in the sequence of evaluation images beginning with the evaluation image obtained immediately prior to the most recently obtained evaluation image and continuing with additional prior obtained evaluation images until the identified common image elements define a predetermined minimum of vertical image elements of an archival image; determining an area of importance based at least in part upon some of the common image elements; and determining an operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance. 2. The method of claim 1, comprising the additional step of indicating the area of importance on a display. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the area of importance commences when the evaluation images are detected to be not significantly different. 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step determining more than one operating parameter. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein each determined operating parameter is applied to capture an image. 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of determining an operating parameter for areas outside of the area of importance based upon analysis of areas that are outside of the area of importance. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the operating parameter for areas outside of the area of importance is applied to a step of processing a portion of an image that is outside of an area of importance. 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the operating parameter for areas outside of the area of importance is applied to a step of capturing an image of a scene that is outside of the area of importance. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is determined based upon analysis of scene content in the area of importance. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the evaluation images are captured within a predetermined time period immediately preceding capture of an archival image. 11. A method for determining an operating parameter for an imaging system, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining evaluation images during composition of an image; storing the evaluation images; comparing the evaluation images to determine common image elements; determining an area of importance based at least in part upon some of the common image elements; and determining an operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance, wherein the operating parameter is a focus distance, wherein a sequence of evaluation images are captured and wherein the step of determining the common image elements are determined by comparing the sequence of evaluation images beginning with the evaluation image that is captured most recently and continuing with prior captured evaluation images in sequence until the identified common image elements define a predetermined minimum image space of the image elements at the evaluation images. 12. A method for operating an image capture device, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a user input indicating a desire to capture an archival image of a scene; obtaining a sequence of evaluation images during composition of the archival image; comparing the evaluation images to determine common image elements by at least comparing the most recently captured evaluation image to other evaluation images in the sequence of evaluation images beginning with the image captured immediately prior to the most recently captured evaluation image and continuing with additional prior captured evaluation images; determining an area of importance based upon at least some of the common image elements; determining an operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance supplemented by analysis of areas outside of the area of importance; and adjusting operation of the image capture device based upon the determined operating parameter so that the archival image will be captured using the operating parameter. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the operating parameter is a focus distance. 14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of detecting a user input indicating that selected ones of the obtained evaluation images are to be used in determining the area of importance wherein only the selected evaluation images are used to determine the area of importance. 15. A method for operating an image capture device, method comprising the steps of: capturing a set of evaluation images during composition of an archival image; forming a preliminary area of importance image based upon the most recently captured evaluation image; extracting portions of the preliminary area of importance image that do not correspond to image information in the other images of the set of evaluation images to obtain a revised preliminary area of importance; determining an area of importance based upon the revised preliminary area of importance image; determining an operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance; and using the operating parameter to capture the archival image, wherein said operating parameter comprises a focus distance. 16. An imaging system comprising: an image source operable to obtain a sequence of images of a scene; and a signal processor adapted to cause the image source to obtain images and to compare the images to identify common image elements in the images by comparing the most recently obtained image to other images in the sequence of images beginning with the image obtained immediately prior to the most recently obtained image and continuing with additional prior obtained images until the identified common image elements define at least one of a predetermined minimum of vertical image elements of an archival image and a predetermined minimum image space of the image elements of the obtained images; wherein the signal processor determines an area of importance in the scene based at least in part upon the identified common image elements and determines an operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance. 17. An imaging system comprising: a composition trigger adapted to generate a composition signal and a capture trigger adapted to generate a trigger signal; an image capture system adapted to capture a sequence of evaluation images of a scene when the composition signal is generated and to capture an archival image of the scene when an archival image capture signal is generated; and a processor adapted to determine common image elements in the evaluation images and to determine an area of importance in the scene based upon the common image elements with the processor further being adapted to cause the area of importance in the scene to be analyzed, to determine an operating parameter based upon the analysis of the area of importance, with the processor being further adapted to determine the common image elements by comparing the most recently captured evaluation image to other evaluation images in the sequence of evaluation images beginning with the evaluation image captured immediately prior to the most recently captured evaluation image and continuing with additional prior captured evaluation images until the identified common image elements define at least one of a predetermined minimum of vertical image elements of an archival image and a predetermined minimum image space of the image elements of the evaluation images; and wherein the processor generates a capture signal in response to the trigger signal and causes the operating parameter to be used in the process of capturing the archival image and, wherein said operating parameter comprises a focus distance. 18. The imaging system of claim 17, wherein the processor causes the area of importance in the scene to be analyzed by analyzing the area of importance shown in at least one of the evaluation images. 19. The imaging system of claim 17, further comprising a rangefinder wherein the processor causes the area of importance to be analyzed by directing the rangefinder to determine a distance from the imaging system to the portion of the scene that corresponds to the determined area importance. 20. The imaging system of claim 17, wherein the processor is also adapted to cause areas outside of the area of importance to be analyzed and to determine the operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance as supplemented by analysis of areas outside of the area importance. 21. A imaging system comprising: an image capture means for capturing an archival image and for capturing a sequence of evaluation image, during composition of the archival image; a comparison means for comparing the evaluation images to identify common image elements by comparing the most recently captured evaluation image to other evaluation images in the sequence of evaluation images beginning with the evaluation image captured immediately prior to the most recently captured evaluation image and continuing with additional prior captured evaluation images until the identified common image elements define at least one of a predetermined minimum of vertical image elements of an archival image and a predetermined minimum image space of the image elements of the evaluation images; a determining means for determining an area of importance in the scene based upon the identified common image elements; and a determining means for determining an operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance, wherein said operating parameter is a focus distance. 22. A method for determining an operating parameter for an imaging system, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a sequence of evaluation images during composition of an image; storing the evaluation images; comparing the evaluation images to determine common image elements by comparing the most recently obtained evaluation image to other evaluation images in the sequence of evaluation images beginning with the evaluation image obtained immediately prior to the most recently obtained evaluation image and continuing with additional prior obtained evaluation images until the identified common image elements define at least one of a predetermined minimum of vertical image elements of an archival image and a predetermined minimum image space of the image elements of the evaluation images; determining an area of importance based at least in part upon some of the common image elements; determining a first operating parameter based upon analysis of the area of importance; determining a second operating parameter based at least in part upon some of the image elements outside of the area of importance; capturing an image according to the first operating parameter; and capturing an image according to the second operating parameter, wherein said operating parameter is a focus distance. 23. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is a focus distance. 24. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is an exposure setting. 25. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is use of a flash. 26. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is a contrast setting. 27. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is a color balance setting. 28. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is a white balance setting. 29. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is an image data modification. 30. The method of claim 1, wherein an image data modification is applied to the area of importance and a different image data modification is applied to other portions of the image. 31. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is an image data modification of sharpening. 32. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter is determined based upon analysis of scene illumination in the area of importance. 33. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is an exposure setting. 34. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is a contrast setting. 35. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is a focus distance. 36. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is color balance. 37. The method of claim 16, wherein an image data modification is applied to the area of importance and a different image data modification is applied to other portions of the image. 38. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is an image data modification of sharpening. 39. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is determined based upon analysis of scene content in the area of importance. 40. The method of claim 16, wherein the operating parameter is determined based upon analysis of scene illumination in the area of importance.