Patent ID: 7158714

Claim:
An image recording/reproducing apparatus capable of effecting recording/reproducing of compression-encoded image information for a first recording medium detachably attached to the apparatus and a second recording medium built in the apparatus and having a larger capacity than the first recording medium, wherein in a state in which recording needs to be effected on the second recording medium, with a compression encoding rate for the image information being controlled to use an entirety of a residual recording capacity of the second recording medium, it is determined whether the residual recording capacity of the second recording medium is equal to or smaller than a residual recording capacity of the first recording medium that is in a non-recorded state, and if the residual recording capacity of the second recording medium is equal to or smaller than the residual recording capacity of the first recording medium in the non-recorded state, the compression encoding rate for the image information is set to use the entirety of the residual recording capacity of the second recording medium, and if the residual recording capacity of the second recording medium is larger than the residual recording capacity of the first recording medium in the non-recorded state, the compression encoding rate for the image information is set by regarding the residual recording capacity of the second recording medium as equal to the residual recording capacity of the first recording medium in the non-recorded state.