Patent ID: 8031237

Claim:
An exposure control method of an image pickup apparatus having an XY address scanning type imaging element, the method comprising: (a) obtaining a video signal by shooting a subject by means of the imaging element; (b) determining a phase of a flicker showing cyclicity in the video signal using a power supply frequency; (c) integrating the video signal as input video signal over not less than a horizontal period; (d) normalizing an integral value obtained in the integrating step or the difference value between integral values of adjacent fields or frames; (e) extracting a flicker spectrum from the normalized integral value or the normalized difference value; f) determining, based on the extracted flicker spectrum, the presence or absence of a flicker component contained in the video signal obtained by the imaging element; (g) determining whether a current environment includes lighting of a flickering light source; and (h) in response to a determination that the current environment includes lighting of the flickering light source, controlling an exposure value by setting a program diagram adapted to use a shutter speed of n/100 seconds for 60 fps, n/120 seconds for 50 fps and n/100 seconds for 30 fps, wherein the program diagram is maintained so long as an appropriate exposure can be realized.