Patent ID: 7580069

Claim:
An image-capturing apparatus, comprising: a mode setting unit that sets a normal image acquisition mode and a reference image acquisition mode; an image-capturing unit that captures an image of a subject through an optical system; and a control unit that generates an image data file containing a normal image when the normal image acquisition mode is selected and generates an image data file containing a reference image to be used to correct an image defect in the normal image when the reference image acquisition mode is selected, wherein: the image data files containing the normal image and the reference image are each constituted of image data corresponding to pixels in the image and information related to the image; the control unit records the image data file containing the normal image and the image data file containing the reference image into a recording medium in a format that allows the image data file containing the normal image to be distinguished from the image data file containing the reference image; outside the image-capturing apparatus a correction unit that automatically selects, without requiring a user data file selection, the image data file containing the reference image for use in correcting the image defect in the image data file containing the normal image based upon distinguishing the recorded format; and the recorded format used to distinguish the image data files being either: (1) an extension appended to the image data file containing the reference image and an extension appended to the image data file containing the normal image; or (2) the information related to the image contained within the image data file containing the reference image and the information related to the image contained within the image data file containing the normal image.