Patent ID: 8228423

Claim:
An imaging apparatus, comprising: an image sensor constituted by a plurality of photoelectric converting elements which are arranged in a matrix and capable of being accessed randomly; control means for controlling the charge accumulation initiation timing and the charge accumulation cessation timing of the photoelectric converting elements line by line or pixel by pixel; image forming means for forming images employing pixel signals which are output from the photoelectric converting elements; main region determining means for determining portions of the images which are formed by the image forming means as main regions; flash driving means for driving a flash during a set preliminary emission period and a set main emission period; and period setting means for setting the preliminary emission period such that charge accumulation is initiated prior to the preliminary emission period and charge accumulation is ceased after the preliminary emission period in the photoelectric converting elements corresponding to pixels that constitute the determined main portions, wherein the period setting means resets the preliminary emission period such that a period which is shifted for an amount of time corresponding to a predetermined threshold value from a reference period becomes the preliminary emission period, in the case that the amount of temporal shift between the preliminary emission period, which has been set based on the main region, and the reference period exceeds the predetermined threshold value.