Patent ID: 7098946

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: image pick up means capable of taking images of the same object at a plurality of different exposure amounts to generate image signals corresponding to a plurality of frames of different exposure amounts; means for generating wide dynamic range, synthesized image by synthesizing image signals corresponding to a plurality of frames of different exposure amounts obtained by the image pickup means; and a normal taking control means based on a normal taking mode for generating image pickup signals corresponding to one frame from said image pickup means, by one taking of image based on normal AE information; said image pickup apparatus further comprising: at least an automatic wide dynamic range taking control means among a forced wide dynamic range taking control means based on a forced wide dynamic range taking mode for forcing a generation of wide dynamic range, synthesized image, and the automatic wide dynamic range taking control means based on an automatic wide dynamic range taking mode for automatically controlling ON/OFF of generation processing of a wide dynamic range, synthesized image by determining based at least on an information set for the image taking among object information or information set for the image taking whether it is suitable for wide dynamic range image taking or not; and means for selectively setting one image taking mode out of the taking modes respectively corresponding to these control means, wherein said information set for the image taking is a taking mode setting information among a consecutive taking mode, sports taking mode, strobe taking mode, scenery taking mode and macro-strobe taking mode, or shutter speed or zoom power.