Patent ID: 7012638

Claim:
An electronic still camera, comprising: a charge storage type image-capturing element that stores electrical charges in correspondence to subject brightness distribution and reads out image data corresponding to said electrical charges; a buffer memory unit that stores said image data read out by said image-capturing element; a continuous shooting setting unit that sets either a first continuous shooting mode or a second continuous shooting mode in which photographs are taken over shorter intervals than in said first continuous shooting mode; and a recording signal output circuit that repeatedly stores electrical charges at said image-capturing element and reads out image data from said image-capturing element to store said image data at said buffer memory unit when either continuous shooting mode has been set by said continuous shooting setting unit and compresses and outputs image data corresponding to a frame which has been read out from said buffer memory unit immediately before, while electrical charges for the next frame are being stored during, at least, a period of time in which said second continuous shooting mode has been set.