Patent ID: 9204030
Filing Date: 2015-12-01
Classification: G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image sensor including plural pixels respectively arranged in a first direction and in a second direction, each pixel being constituted by (a) a microlens and (b) two photoelectric conversion portions respectively photoelectrically converting two object images formed by the microlens; a signal reader configured to perform a first reading operation that adds signals from the two photoelectric conversion portions to read the added signal as a pixel signal and a second reading operation that independently reads the signal from each of the two photoelectric conversion portions as the pixel signal; and a phase difference detector configured to detect a phase difference between the two object images by using the pixel signal read by the second reading operation, wherein the image sensor includes plural pixel lines arranged in the first direction, each pixel line including pixels lined in the second direction, and wherein the signal reader performs, when the phase difference detector detects the phase difference, the second reading operation on the pixel lines located discretely in the first direction among the plural pixel lines, and wherein the signal reader changes a starting pixel line from which the second reading operation is started, at an image producing cycle in moving image capturing.