Patent ID: 6933977

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus which uses an imaging device for producing an imaging device output signal containing an object image signal representing an object image focused on its photosensitive surface which is larger than the object image and provides a video output signal corresponding to the object image, comprising: a detector configured to detect the position of boundary between the object image signal and the other signal in the imaging device output signal in accordance with their difference in magnitude; a shift amount computing unit configured to compute shift amounts that are required to display the object image on a display screen such that a center of an object image display area coincides with a center of the display screen, based on the boundary position detected by the detector; a sync signal generator that generates horizontal and vertical sync signals to be added to the video output signal; a shift circuit configured to shift phases of the horizontal and vertical sync signals generated by the sync signal generator based on the shift amounts computed by the shift amount computing unit; a driving pulse generator that generates driving pulses to drive the imagine device, based on the horizontal and vertical sync signals shifted by the shift circuit; and a sync adder configured to add the horizontal and vertical sync signals generated by the sync signal generator to the imaging device output signal to provide the video output signal.