Patent ID: 7349119

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, comprising; image pickup means capable of taking a plurality of images with differing amounts of exposure light with respect to the same subject; synthesizing means for synthesizing the plurality of images with differing amounts of exposure light obtained from the image pickup means as a set of images, to thereby generate a synthesized image with a wide dynamic range; suitability evaluating means for evaluating the suitability of the synthesizing processing for the set of images; selecting means for selecting, based on the evaluation by the suitability evaluation means, one of (A) the synthesized image, (B) the set of images and (C) one image of the set of images; and recording means for recording the set of images and SL parameters when the set of images is selected by the selecting means, the SL parameters being used for generating the synthesized image with a wide dynamic range from the set of images in a predetermined external device of the image pickup apparatus.