Patent ID: 8223221

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging unit, having an image sensor, that drives the image sensor at a frame rate n times that of a predetermined video format (where n is an integer of 2 or more) and converts an optical signal entering the image sensor into an electric signal, thereby obtaining an n time-speed image signal; a flashing light detection unit that detects incoming flash light in the n time-speed image signal obtained by the imaging unit and outputs a flashing light detection signal indicating the result of detecting the incoming flash light; and a format conversion unit that outputs an image signal compliant with the predetermined video format by selecting image signals to be processed based upon the flashing light detection signal when generating the image signal compliant with the predetermined video format from the n time-speed image signal obtained by the imaging unit, wherein the format conversion unit includes: an average computation unit, controlled by the flashing light detection signal, that, in the case where flashing light has been detected by the flashing light detection unit, obtains an average image signal by removing the images of frames containing flashing light from n frames' worth of the n time-speed image signal based on the flashing light detection signal and calculating the average of each pixel in the n time-speed image signal forming the frames aside from the frames that have been removed, and in the case where flashing light has not been detected by the flashing light detection unit, obtains an average image signal by calculating the average of each pixel in the n frames' worth of the n time-speed image signal; and a speed conversion unit that converts the average image signal into 1/n speed, thereby outputting an image signal that matches the timing of the predetermined video format.