Patent ID: 7433531

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus having a standby state in which image data obtained by capturing an object image is monitored on a display but not recorded, and a photographic image data recording mode in which image data corresponding to a still image, which a user instructs recording of, is recorded as photographic image data, said image capturing apparatus comprising: high-frequency integration means for integrating only a high-frequency component of the obtained image data during the standby state; and compression processing means for compressing the photographic image data to be recorded during the photographic image data recording mode based on an integrated value obtained only during the standby state by integration of the high-frequency integration means, wherein the high-frequency integration means comprises: extraction means for extracting the high-frequency component of the image data; absolute-value determination means for determining an absolute value of the extracted high-frequency component of the image data; and absolute-value integration means for integrating the absolute value of the high-frequency component of the image data determined by the absolute-value determination means; and the compression processing means comprises: number-of-compressed-bytes calculation means for determining the number of compressed bytes of the photographic image data to be recorded based on the integrated value obtained by integration of the high-frequency integration means; quantization-scale calculation means for determining, based on the number of compressed bytes determined by the number-of-compressed-bytes calculation means, a quantization scale based on which the photographic image data is compressed one time to a predetermined number of bytes; quantization-table generation means for generating a quantization table for use in compression of the photographic image data based on the quantization scale determined by the quantization-scale calculation means; and compression means for compressing the photographic image data based on the quantization table generated by the quantization-table generation means.