Patent ID: 8081232

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, comprising: an image pickup element having a plurality of pixels; a drive unit moving the image pickup element; a defective position storage unit storing position data on the image pickup element about a defective pixel contained in the plurality of pixels; an image extraction unit extracting a moving picture regeneration area depending on a position of the image pickup element during capturing an image from a captured image obtained by the image pickup element; and a defect correction unit complementing a defective pixel of a captured image obtained by the image pickup element using image data of captured image obtained by the image pickup element in another position, wherein moving pictures are formed by continuously outputting captured images in the moving picture regeneration area for which the defect correction unit has complemented the defective pixel, wherein a moving direction and moving amount of the image pickup element for the complement is determined from mutual position relationship of a defective pixel contained in the plurality of pixels, and wherein the determination of the moving direction and the moving amount includes determining, according to the position data of the defective pixel stored in the position storage unit, a number of defective pixels that are adjacent to the defective pixel in a specific direction and in a specific amount, when the number of defective pixels is “0”, determining the specific direction and the specific amount as the moving direction and the moving amount of the image pickup element for the complement, and when the number of defective pixels is not “0”, repeating a process of changing at least one of the specific direction and the specific amount for a predetermined number of times or until the specific direction and the specific amount is determined to be the moving direction and the moving amount of the image pickup element for the complement.