Patent ID: 8723958

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, comprising: an image pickup element for picking up a visible color image component by pixels including color filters, an infrared image component by pixels including infrared filters and a luminance image component including a visible luminance image component and the infrared image component by pixels for receiving light at least in a visible wavelength region and an infrared wavelength region; an evaluation value calculator for calculating an evaluation value used to evaluate brightness of a subject based on the luminance image component and the infrared image component; a factor determiner for determining, using the evaluation value, a first weighting factor having a predetermined characteristic of increasing as the brightness of the subject increases and a second weighting factor having a predetermined characteristic of decreasing as the brightness of the subject increases; and a signal generator for generating the visible luminance image component by subtracting the infrared image component from the luminance image component DW−DBlk, generating a luminance signal by combining the visible luminance image component weighted using the first weighting factor determined by the factor determiner and the luminance image component or the infrared image component weighted using the second weighting factor determined by the factor determiner and generating a color information signal by combining the visible color image component, the infrared image component and the luminance image component; wherein: the image pickup element is such that unit pixel sections each including a first pixel, a second pixel, a third pixel and a fourth pixel and having the visible wavelength region and the infrared wavelength region as a sensitive wavelength band are arrayed in a matrix; each first pixel includes a first color filter for transmitting light in the sensitive wavelength band excluding a blue region of the visible wavelength region; each second pixel includes a second color filter for transmitting light in the sensitive wavelength band excluding blue and green regions of the visible wavelength region; each third pixel includes a third color filter for transmitting light in the sensitive wavelength band excluding the visible wavelength region; and each fourth pixel is a pixel for receiving light at least in the visible wavelength region and the infrared wavelength region.