Patent ID: 8228376

Claim:
An image taking apparatus comprising: a shooting section which takes an image of a subject to obtain a shot image; a photometric section which has three or more photometric modes in which brightness of the obtained shot image is determined based on brightness of each portion of the obtained shot image or brightness of a predetermined portion of the obtained shot image, by using different three or more calculation schemes respectively, any of the different three or more calculation schemes being applicable to the obtained shot image; a condition adjuster which adjusts a shooting condition affected by brightness of the shot image, based on the brightness measured by the photometric section; a mode selector which selects, in accordance with a selecting operation of a user, two or more photometric modes in accordance with a selecting operation from the three or more photometric modes of the photometric section; and a mode switcher which causes the photometric section to execute one of the two or more photometric modes selected by the mode selector, and cyclically switches the one of the two or more photometric modes among the two or more photometric modes in response to a switching operation of the user for instructing switching of the photometric mode, wherein the three or more photometric modes include at least an average photometry mode in which an average of brightness of all portions of the obtained shot image is determined as the brightness of the obtained shot image, and a peak photometry mode in which brightness of a relatively high brightness portion of the obtained shot image is determined as the brightness of the obtained shot image, and wherein the three or more photometric modes further include a mix photometric mode in which determined as the brightness of the obtained shot image is brightness that is obtained by multiplying the brightness of the obtained shot image determined by the average photometry mode and the brightness of the obtained shot image determined by the peak photometry mode by predetermined weights respectively and adding the two brightness multiplied by the predetermined weights.