Patent ID: 7812801

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: a solid-state image sensor having an effective pixel area and an optical black area; a smear detection device which detects smear intensity and smear occurrence position in a smear occurrence area, which is an area where a smear occurs in the effective pixel area, based on an output signal obtained from the optical black area of the solid-state image sensor; and a smear correction device which performs smear correction by subtracting a smear correction value corresponding to the smear intensity from an output signal of the smear occurrence position and the vicinity thereof in the effective pixel area; a photometry device which calculates exposure conditions by splitting the effective pixel area into a plurality of photometric areas; and an exposure control device which performs exposure control based on the calculated exposure conditions, wherein the photometry device either reduces weighting on the output signals in a photometric area located at the smear occurrence position or at the smear occurrence position and its vicinity, or does not use the output signals in the photometric area located at the smear occurrence position or at the smear occurrence position and its vicinity during calculation of the exposure conditions.