An imaging apparatus comprising: an image pickup device comprising a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arrayed in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction; a color filter that is provided above a plurality of pixels configured by the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, the color filter having repeatedly disposed 6 x 6 pixel basic array patterns configured with two first 3 x 3 pixel array patterns and two second 3 x 3 pixel array patterns disposed symmetrically about a center of the basic array pattern, wherein the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern has a first filter corresponding to a first color that contributes most to obtaining a brightness signal placed at the 4 corner and center pixels of the first 3 × 3 pixel array pattern, a second filter corresponding to a second color (R, B) different from the first color placed at the other pixels in a horizontal line passing through the center of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern, and a third filter corresponding to a third color (B, R) different from the first color and the second color (R, B) placed at the other pixels in a vertical line passing through the center of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern; characterized in that the second 3 x 3 pixel array pattern has the same placement of the first filter as that in the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern and has the placement of the second filter and the placement of the third filter swapped over to that of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern; a drive means is configured to drive the image pickup device so as to read pixel data only of pixels on lines at predetermined positions in the vertical direction; a pixel conversion means is configured to convert pixel data of each line thinned and read from the image pickup device into Bayer array pixel data that is in a Bayer array pattern in which two pixels placed on one diagonal of a 2 × 2 pixel square array are pixels of the first color, and two pixels placed on the other diagonal are a pixel of the second color (R, B) and a pixel of the third color (B, R); and a generation means that, based on the Bayer array pixel data, is configured to generate pixel data for each color for each of the pixels by interpolating pixel data for colors other than the corresponding color from pixel data of peripheral pixels. an image pickup device comprising a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arrayed in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction; a color filter that is provided above a plurality of pixels configured by the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, the color filter having repeatedly disposed 6 x 6 pixel basic array patterns configured with two first 3 x 3 pixel array patterns and two second 3 x 3 pixel array patterns disposed symmetrically about a center of the basic array pattern, wherein the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern has a first filter corresponding to a first color that contributes most to obtaining a brightness signal placed at the 4 corner and center pixels of the first 3 × 3 pixel array pattern, a second filter corresponding to a second color (R, B) different from the first color placed at the other pixels in a horizontal line passing through the center of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern, and a third filter corresponding to a third color (B, R) different from the first color and the second color (R, B) placed at the other pixels in a vertical line passing through the center of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern; the color filter having repeatedly disposed 6 x 6 pixel basic array patterns configured with two first 3 x 3 pixel array patterns and two second 3 x 3 pixel array patterns disposed symmetrically about a center of the basic array pattern, wherein the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern has a first filter corresponding to a first color that contributes most to obtaining a brightness signal placed at the 4 corner and center pixels of the first 3 × 3 pixel array pattern, a second filter corresponding to a second color (R, B) different from the first color placed at the other pixels in a horizontal line passing through the center of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern, and a third filter corresponding to a third color (B, R) different from the first color and the second color (R, B) placed at the other pixels in a vertical line passing through the center of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern; characterized in that the second 3 x 3 pixel array pattern has the same placement of the first filter as that in the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern and has the placement of the second filter and the placement of the third filter swapped over to that of the first 3 x 3 pixel array pattern; a drive means is configured to drive the image pickup device so as to read pixel data only of pixels on lines at predetermined positions in the vertical direction; a pixel conversion means is configured to convert pixel data of each line thinned and read from the image pickup device into Bayer array pixel data that is in a Bayer array pattern in which two pixels placed on one diagonal of a 2 × 2 pixel square array are pixels of the first color, and two pixels placed on the other diagonal are a pixel of the second color (R, B) and a pixel of the third color (B, R); and a generation means that, based on the Bayer array pixel data, is configured to generate pixel data for each color for each of the pixels by interpolating pixel data for colors other than the corresponding color from pixel data of peripheral pixels.