Patent ID: 7440022

Claim:
An image sensing method of sensing an image by an image sensing apparatus having an electronic shutter for controlling a charge accumulation time of an image sensing element and a mechanical shutter for releasing/shielding an optical path to the image sensing element, the method having a first control mode of controlling an image sensing method period mainly by the electronic shutter, comprising: a control step of controlling operations of the electronic and mechanical shutters so as to overlap each other, and a charge reading period of the image sensing element and part of a release operation period of the mechanical shutter are controlled to overlap each other, wherein the mechanical shutter has front blades for releasing the optical path to the image sensing element and rear blades for shielding the optical path to the image sensing element, and letting T 1 min be a shortest time until release of a predetermined region starts after the front blades start the release operation, the release operation of the front blades starts T 1 min before completion of read of charges accumulated in the image sensing element in previous photography in said control step in the first control mode.