Patent ID: 8593546

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a defect correction unit that performs defect correction on a target pixel; a noise reduction processing unit that performs noise reduction processing on the target pixel and a plurality of adjacent pixels which are pixels for the same color as that of the target pixel and are located around the target pixel; and an output selection unit that selects any one of the output from the defect correction unit and the output from the noise reduction processing unit, wherein the defect correction unit includes a defect determination unit that performs defect determination on the target pixel and the plurality of adjacent pixels based on a difference between a maximum value of signal values of the plurality of adjacent pixels and a signal value of the target pixel and based on a difference between a minimum value of the signal values of the plurality of adjacent pixels and the signal value of the target pixel, a contrast determination unit that performs contrast determination by comparing a numerical width between the maximum value and the minimum value with a predetermined contrast determination threshold, and an illuminance determination unit that performs illuminance determination by comparing an illuminance level of a subject with a predetermined illuminance determination threshold, wherein the output selection unit selects the output from the defect correction unit when the target pixel is determined to be a defect, and wherein the defect correction unit enables a correction value to be output as a signal value applied to the target pixel in accordance with the contrast determination and the illuminance determination.