Patent ID: 7693400

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an image capture unit; an encoding unit configured to encode a moving picture signal output by said image capture unit, using intraframe encoding and interframe encoding, and to generate an encoded image signal comprising a plurality of picture groups each comprising n (where n represents an integer equal to or greater than 2) frames of an image signal including intraframe-encoded pictures obtained by the intraframe encoding and interframe-encoded pictures obtained by the interframe encoding; an instruction unit configured to provide an instruction to start a recording of the encoded image signal, wherein the instruction is detected when a frame of a picture group is an interframe-encoded picture; a recording unit configured to record, in response to the instruction, the encoded image signal generated by said encoding unit, on a recording medium; a communications unit configured to communicate the encoded image signal generated by said encoding unit to an external device while the signal is in an encoded state; and a controller configured to control, upon detection of the instruction while the encoded image signal is being transmitted to the external device, said recording unit to start recording the encoded image signal, wherein said controller controls said recording unit to record the encoded image signal from a beginning of the picture group containing the frame of the picture group corresponding to when the instruction is detected.