Patent ID: 8878979

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup device that photoelectrically converts an image of an object; a first image generator that generates a first image based on a signal read from the image pickup device in each read cycle of the signal, the signal read in a cycle shorter than a cycle of a flicker of a light source illuminating the object; a detector that detects a luminance of the first image and detects a luminance variation in a plurality of the first images; a second image generator that generates a second image by amplifying the first image in accordance with the luminance so as to reduce the luminance variation when the detector detects the luminance variation; and a controller that generates a focus evaluation signal based on the second image to perform a focus control using the focus evaluation signal, wherein, when the focus control is performed using the focus evaluation signal based on the second image, the controller does not use the focus evaluation signal based on the second image generated from the first image in which the luminance is lower than a predetermined luminance for the focus control, and the controller uses the focus evaluation signal based on the second image generated from the first image in which the luminance is higher than the predetermined luminance for the focus control.