Patent ID: 7359549

Claim:
A color imaging device comprising: an imager to generate an image with color decomposition, the imager producing raw image data as a result of generating the image; a decomposing unit to decompose the raw image data into a plurality of plane data such that each plane data includes pixel information of the same color; a compression and encoding unit to compress the plane data of each color divided by the decomposing unit with an irreversible compression process; a controller to control a compression ratio of the irreversible compression process conducted by the compression and encoding unit for the plane data of each color independently with each other; and an information acquisition unit to acquire an evaluation value of white-balance from the raw data, wherein the controller determines whether a proportion of a color component is large or small based on the evaluation value of white-balance acquired by the information acquisition unit, the controller further setting the compression ratio of the color plane to be higher than a standard compression ratio for the color component of which proportion has been determined to be small.