Patent ID: 7433099

Claim:
An image sensing apparatus comprising: an image sensing element which outputs first, second, and third color components of color filters on pixels in one field; an image sensing controller which forms an image of one frame by n fields (n is an odd number of not less than 3), and reads out pixel data of said image sensing element so as to contain all color components in each 1-field period; a storage device which writes the pixel data of said image sensing element read out by said image sensing controller, and reads out the pixel data; a determination device which determines whether pixel data of predetermined lines is read out from said image sensing element or not, wherein the predetermined lines are set in accordance with a comparison of a driving rate of said image sensing element with a read out rate of said storage device for white balance processing; and a processing device which starts white balance calculation on the basis of the pixel data read out from said storage device in case said determination device determines that pixel data of the predetermined lines is read out from said image sensing element in a period between an image sensing instruction being input and read of one frame from said image sensing element being completed by said image sensing controller.