Patent ID: 8248506

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an image sensor capable of generating image data from incident light wherein the image sensor is capable of decimating the image data at least in a vertical direction; a signal processor connected to the image sensor, capable of selectively performing a plurality of signal processing on image data, capable of performing a processing of image data comprising a luminance signal and two chrominance signals as a performable signal processing, and capable of performing a processing of image data in a plurality of resolutions including a low resolution associated with a display resolution and a high resolution that is higher than said low resolution as a performable signal processing, wherein the signal processor comprises a data bus for interconnecting a plurality of components of the signal processor for data exchange; a display having the display resolution, connected to the signal processor and capable of displaying image data; a storage interface connected to the signal processor and capable of connecting to a recording medium for recording image data thereon; and a memory connected to the signal processor and capable of storing image data from the image sensor; wherein said imaging apparatus is configured to be operated in first, second and third operation modes; wherein in the first operation mode: image data is generated by the image sensor and decimated into the low resolution, the image data is stored in the memory, the image data is formatted for display by the signal processor, and the formatted image data is displayed on the display; in the second operation mode: image data is generated by the image sensor in the high resolution, the image data is stored in the memory, the image data is compressed by the signal processor into compressed image data, and the compressed image data is recorded on the recording medium; and in the third operation mode, compressed image data is read out from the recording medium, the compressed image data is decompressed by the signal processor, the decompressed image data is stored in the memory, the decompressed image data is formatted for display by the signal processor, and the formatted image data is displayed on the display.