Patent ID: 7646411

Claim:
An imaging apparatus which includes: imaging means for applying photoelectric conversion of light from a subject and outputting the converted result as an image signal; light amount adjustment means for regulating the amount of light which enters the imaging means; gain adjustment means for adjusting a gain of the image signal output from the imaging means; and correction means for applying gamma correction using gamma correction values to the image signal whose gain has been adjusted by the gain adjustment means, the imaging apparatus comprising: modification means in which a maximum reflectance, being an index for the amount of incident light corresponding to a maximum output of the imaging means, is increasingly or decreasingly changed in a plurality of levels according to the subject, and, in response to changes in maximum reflectance, at least either one of the light amount adjustment means and the gain adjustment means is adjusted to thereby shift a dynamic range, and revision means which, in response to changes in the maximum reflectance made by the modification means, revises the gamma correction values so as to substantially maintain a relationship between a reference amount of incident light used as a reference for correct exposure and the corresponding output value obtained by gamma correction; wherein the modification means automatically changes the maximum reflectance based on histograms of a brightness and colors in the image signal which has been gamma corrected by the gamma correction means.