Patent ID: 8223244

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus comprising: a light receiving section that receives light from an object; an optical system that passes the light from the object therethrough so as to cause the light receiving section to receive the light from the object, the optical system including an optical modulating section which causes an optical transfer function of the light from the object to remain substantially constant at a position where the light receiving section is provided on condition that an object distance of the object falls within a predetermined range in a direction parallel to an optical axis of the optical system; a diaphragm section that blocks at least partially the light from the object to be received by the light receiving section; a light quantity detecting section that detects a quantity of the light from the object; and an image capturing control section that, when the light quantity detected by the light quantity detecting section is smaller than a predetermined light quantity, (i) sets an aperture size of the diaphragm section so as to be larger than a predetermined value and (ii) causes the light receiving section to receive the light from the object at least part of which is modulated by the optical modulating section, wherein the optical modulating section is movable relative to the optical axis of the optical system, and when the light quantity detected by the light quantity detecting section is smaller than the predetermined light quantity, the image capturing control section (i) sets the aperture size of the diaphragm section so as to be larger than the predetermined value and (ii) moves the optical modulating section to a position which enables the light receiving section to receive the light from the object at least part of which has passed through the optical modulating section.