Image pickup apparatus with reduced flicker and automatic level adjusting method of the same

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus includes a solid-state imaging device, an accumulating section, first and second imaging parameter setting sections, a calculating section, a flicker detecting section, and a switching section. The accumulating section calculates a projection output value of a predetermined line in a frame. The calculating section calculates inter-frame variations of the projection output values, and calculates a flicker index from the variations of a predetermined number of frames. The flicker detecting section detects the flicker from the index, and controls the switching section in response to the detection result of the flicker, so that the switching section selects either the setting signals from the first imaging parameter setting section or the setting signals from the second imaging parameter setting section. Thus, the charge storage time of the solid-state imaging device is set at either an integer multiple of 1/100 second or an integer multiple of 1/120 second in response to the frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) of a power supply of the fluorescent lighting. The image pickup apparatus can solve a problem of a conventional apparatus in that it is difficult for the conventional apparatus to suppress the flicker in regions where the frequency of the power supply differ from each other.