Patent ID: 7589784
Filing Date: 2009-09-15
Classification: G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An imaging apparatus, comprising: a flash for emitting light onto an object; an image pickup device formed from a plurality of pixels, each of which can perform any of an exposure operation and a reading operation thereof at a timing different from that of the other; a memory unit to store image information formed by said image pickup device before a pre-flash operation by the flash; a detector circuit for detecting a brightness of image information formed by the image pickup device, and a control circuit for controlling operations of the image pickup device and of the detector circuit, said control circuit causing the flash to fire the preflash before a main-flashing operation by the flash, causing the image pickup device to form an image at the time of the preflash, and causing the detector circuit to detect the brightness of image information formed at the time of the pre flash, to compute an amount of main-flashing light to be fired by said flash on the basis of the detected brightness of the image information formed at the time of the preflash, said control circuit starting the exposure operation simultaneously for all the pixels of said image pickup device at the time of the preflash by said flash, to form the image at the time of the preflash, wherein when said pickup device starts a during-preflash exposure operation, said control circuit causes said pickup device to read the image information which have been stored in said memory unit, instead of an image to be formed by said image pickup device at the time of the preflash, and outputs the read image information to an image recording apparatus or image output apparatus.