Patent ID: 7705895

Claim:
An image-taking apparatus for taking an image by using a solid-state image-taking device, said image-taking apparatus comprising: first compression/coding means for receiving the data of an image, which has been taken in an image-taking process at a first screen rate, and carrying out a compression/coding process on said image; temporary storage means for temporarily storing the data of an image obtained as a result of a compression/coding process carried out by said first compression/coding means; decompression/decoding means for reading out the data of an image taken during a predetermined period of time from said temporary storage means at a second screen rate lower than said first screen rate and carrying out a decompression/decoding process on said image read out from said temporary storage means; second compression/coding means for carrying out a compression/coding process on an image obtained as a result of a decompression/decoding process carried out by said decompression/decoding means; storage means for storing the data of an image obtained as a result of a compression/coding process carried out by said second compression/coding means; display processing means for reading out the data of an image taken during said predetermined period of time from said temporary storage means at said second screen rate and generating an image signal to be displayed; and discrete-reduction means for discretely reducing image data obtained as a result of a photographing process carried out at said first screen rate to output data equivalent to data obtained at said second screen rate and supplying said output data to said display processing means, wherein the size of the image received by the first compression/coding means is adjusted to conform to the specifications of the first compression/coding means and temporary storage means.