Patent ID: 7298402

Claim:
An image-pickup apparatus comprising: an information acquiring means for, prior to actual photographing, acquiring information concerning a dynamic range, which is required to photograph a photographic scene, with a first condition for exposure and a second condition for exposure different from the first condition for exposure; an analyzing means for analyzing the information acquired by said information acquiring means, including an information synthesizing means for synthesizing the information concerning a dynamic range with said first and second conditions for exposure acquired by said information acquiring means, wherein the information synthesizing means synthesizes at least first and second luminance information obtained during the first condition for exposure and the second condition for exposure, respectively, wherein the first and second luminance information are matched with a corresponding exposure level associated with the first condition for exposure and the second condition for exposure, respectively, to provide synthetic luminance information based on the first and second luminance information and a histogram arithmetic means for producing a histogram of the information synthesized by said information synthesizing means including the synthetic luminance information; a conditions-for-photographing setting means for setting the conditions for actual photographing according to the result of the analysis performed by said analyzing means; a photographing means for performing actual photographing under the conditions for actual photographing set by said conditions-for-photographing setting means, and an image information converting means for converting an image produced during the actual photographing according to the result of analysis performed by said analyzing means.