Patent ID: 7061000

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an image reading unit which photoelectrically reads an image recorded on a film; an enlarging/reducing unit which subjects data of the read image to electronic magnification processing; a detecting unit which detects one or more image defects caused by at least one of a foreign particle deposited on the film and a flaw of the film using image data enlarged or reduced with the enlarging/reducing unit; a display unit which displays the image enlarged or reduced with the enlarging/reducing unit and the one or more image defects detected by the detecting unit; an instruction unit which allows to interactively select either one or more image defects to be processed automatically, or one or more image defects to be processed manually using a displayed image displayed on the display unit, and instructs interactively at least one of the one or more image defects to be processed automatically and the one or more image defects to be processed manually using a displayed image displayed on the display unit; a processing unit which automatically processes to correct the one or more image defects that are instructed to be corrected automatically; a correcting unit which manually corrects the remaining one or more image defects or the one or more image defects that are instructed to be corrected manually, wherein the instruction unit allows a user to optionally select between processing the image defects automatically or manually, and a data processing unit that subjects the image data read with the image reading unit to predetermined image processing; wherein the data processing unit has an automatic image defect correcting function as well as outputs image data together with a tag provided therewith that indicates whether or not an automatic image defect correction is carried out using the automatic image defect correcting function, and wherein the detecting unit, the display unit, the instruction unit, the processing unit, and the correcting unit perform image defect correction processing only when image data provided with a tag indicating that the automatic image defect correction is not carried out is output from the data processing unit.