Patent ID: 8558915

Claim:
A photographing apparatus comprising: a lens array in which a plurality of lenses are regularly arranged on a single plane; and a photoelectric conversion unit comprising a plurality of photoelectric conversion areas each including a plurality of pixels, the plurality of photoelectric conversion areas installed on a single plane, each photoelectric conversion area corresponding to an irradiation range of light passing through a respective one of the plurality of lenses of the lens array, wherein the photoelectric conversion unit comprises: a first mode in which data is continuously read out from all pixels included in the plurality of photoelectric conversion areas; and at least one second mode in which a subset of fewer than all pixels of each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion areas are selected and used to generate a color image, wherein the selected pixels of each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion areas are at relatively the same positions with respect to each respective lens of the lens array, and wherein data is continuously read out from the selected pixels.