IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS

Abstract

A detection error of foreign substance due to the presence of a newly generated defective pixel can be considerably prevented. An image pickup apparatus includes a foreign substance detector detecting foreign substance adhering to an optical member arranged on a light axis for image capturing in accordance with an image signal obtained by the image pickup device, a defective pixel position detector detecting a position of a defective pixel in the image pickup device in accordance with an image signal obtained by the image pickup device, a storage unit storing position information detected by the defective pixel position detector, and a controller controlling processing so that the foreign substance detector detects the foreign substance after the defective pixel position detector detects the position of the defective pixel.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a digital camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating processing for detecting a foreign-substance adhesion position according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing for detecting a defective-pixel position according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus having an image pickup device which outputs image signals subjected to photoelectric conversion, the image pickup apparatus comprising: an optical member arranged on a light axis for image capturing and arranged in front of the image pickup device;a foreign substance detector detecting foreign substance adhering to the optical member in accordance with the image signals outputted from the image pickup device;a defective pixel position detector detecting a position of a defective pixel in the image pickup device in accordance with the image signals outputted from the image pickup device;a storage unit storing information on the position detected by the defective pixel position detector; anda controller controlling the foreign substance detector to detect foreign substance after the defective pixel position detector detects the position of a defective pixel.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a defective pixel compensator correcting, from the image signals supplied from the image pickup device, an image signal corresponding to the position of a defective pixel in accordance with the position information stored in the storage unit,wherein the image signal corrected by the defective pixel compensator is detected by the defective pixel position detector.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller determines whether or not the defective pixel position detector detected the position of a defective pixel within a predetermined period of time before the detection performed by the foreign substance detector, and responsive to the controller determining that the defective pixel position detector performed detection of the position of a defective pixel within the predetermined period of time, the defective pixel position detector does not further perform the detection of the position of a defective pixel.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a lowest ISO sensitivity is set responsive to an image being captured in the detection of foreign substance by the foreign substance detector.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a lowest ISO sensitivity is set responsive to an image being captured in the detection of foreign substance by the foreign substance detector.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a lowest ISO sensitivity is set responsive to an image being captured in the detection of foreign substance by the foreign substance detector.

7. A method for controlling an image pickup apparatus having an image pickup device which outputs image signals subjected to photoelectric conversion, the controlling method comprising: detecting foreign substance adhering to an optical member arranged on a light axis for image capturing and arranged in front of the image pickup device in accordance with the image signals outputted from the image pickup device;detecting a position of a defective pixel in the image pickup device in accordance with the image signals outputted from the image pickup device;storing information on the detected position; andcontrolling processing such that the foreign substance is detected after the position of a defective pixel is detected.

8. A program stored on a recording medium and which allows a computer to execute the method set forth in claim 7.