Patent ID: 7580622

Claim:
An imaging apparatus having an imaging element which converts an optically formed image to an electrical signal by means of photoelectric conversion, thereby acquiring image data, the imaging apparatus comprising: an optical magnification changing mechanism which optically changes a magnification of an image; and an electronic magnification change mechanism which reduces or expands a magnification with respect to image data by signal processing, wherein the imaging apparatus provides a magnification-changed image according to a predetermined magnification based on the optical magnification changing mechanism and the electronic magnification change mechanism, wherein the optical magnification changing mechanism is configured so that a magnification is discrete and a focal position changes together with a focal distance, and wherein the electronic magnification change mechanism: (i) carries out an interpolating process such that a number of pixels is increased with respect to a predetermined region of read image data during an expanding process; and (ii) carries out a process for discretely sampling a wide region as compared with a readout region obtained by sampling provided when no magnification change is made, during a reducing process, and converting sampled region data to predetermined image data by a correcting process, thereby offsetting a change of the focal position in the optical magnification changing mechanism.