Patent ID: 8102446

Claim:
An image capturing system that applies grayscale conversion to a video signal from an image capturing unit and outputs the grayscale-converted video signal, comprising: a second-grayscale-conversion-characteristic calculating unit that calculates a second grayscale conversion characteristic from a video signal to which a first grayscale conversion process has been applied by using a first grayscale conversion characteristic used to convert an M-bit video signal into an N-bit video signal, where M and N are integers and M is larger than N; a second-grayscale-conversion-characteristic correcting unit that corrects the second grayscale conversion characteristic calculated by the second-grayscale-conversion-characteristic calculating unit, by using the first grayscale conversion characteristic; a first grayscale conversion unit that applies the first grayscale conversion process to the video signal by using the first grayscale conversion characteristic; and a second grayscale conversion unit that applies a second grayscale conversion process to the video signal to which the first grayscale conversion process has been applied by the first grayscale conversion unit, by using the second grayscale conversion characteristic corrected by the second-grayscale-conversion-characteristic correcting unit.