Patent ID: 8164685

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, comprising: an image pickup unit which obtains an image, the image pickup unit including an image pickup element and an image pickup optical system which includes an aperture stop and forms the image on the image pickup element; a synthesis instruction unit which provides an instruction to form a multiple exposure image by performing registration of a plurality of images and synthesizing the plurality of images into one image; an aperture value control unit which controls setting of an aperture value of the aperture stop when the synthesis instruction unit provides the instruction to form the multiple exposure image; and an image processing unit which forms the multiple exposure image by synthesizing, into one image, a plurality of images obtained by the image pickup unit with the aperture value set by the aperture value control unit; wherein the aperture value control unit variably controls the aperture value of the aperture stop in accordance with a number of images obtained by continuous imaging performed by the image pickup unit to obtain the plurality of images for the multiple exposure image; and wherein the aperture value control unit sets a standard aperture value of the aperture stop to a maximum aperture value corresponding to a focal distance of the image pickup optical system, and adjusts the standard aperture value in accordance with the number of images obtained by continuous imaging.