Patent ID: 8035727

Claim:
An image taking device comprising: an image pickup device which picks up an image in a field; a luminance measuring device which divides the image into a predetermined number of blocks to measure a luminance level of each block; a reference average luminance level calculating device which calculates an average luminance level in a predetermined reference area in the image; a backlight determining device which compares the average luminance level in the reference area with the luminance level of each block to sample a bright block high in luminance level, and determines whether the picked up image is backlit based on the average luminance level of the bright block and the average luminance level of the reference area; an exposure controlling device which calculates an exposure value based on the result of the determination as to the backlight to control exposure; and an exposure value correcting device which corrects the exposure value, wherein the backlight determining device counts a number of the bright blocks and calculates an exposure value correction amount based on the average luminance level of the bright blocks, the average luminance level of the reference area and the number of the bright blocks, and if the backlight determining device determines that the picked up image is backlit, the exposure value correcting device corrects the exposure value based on the exposure value correction amount.