Patent ID: 7742637

Claim:
An imaging apparatus, comprising: an imaging unit configured to take an image of a subject and output image data of the image of the subject; a histogram producing unit configured to produce a histogram of the image data output from the imaging unit; a tone correction unit configured to make a tone correction on the image data output from the imaging unit; a feature histogram table in which a plurality of feature histograms respectively corresponding to a plurality of reference image patterns are stored; an input-output characteristic table in which a plurality of input-output characteristics respectively corresponding to the plurality of feature histograms are stored; an input-output characteristic adjustment unit configured to calculate a degree of approximation of the histogram produced by the histogram producing unit with respect to each of the plurality of feature histograms stored in the feature histogram table, to select an input-output characteristic from the input-output characteristic table in accordance with the calculated degree of approximation, and to adjust the selected input-output characteristic in accordance with the degree of approximation, the tone correction unit being configured to make the tone correction using the input-output characteristic adjusted by the input-output characteristic adjustment unit, and the imaging apparatus further comprising means for determining whether to modify or adjust the tone correction by considering a number of predetermined factors and for causing the tone correction to be modified or adjusted in accordance with a predetermined procedure from among a plurality of predetermined procedures.