Image pickup apparatus, method, and storage medium for displaying, compressing, and encoding image data

Abstract

In order to obtain a digital still camera capable of storing only a desired image from photography images, a photography image data generation unit processes an image signal from a CCD to generate high-, middle-, and low-resolution image data. While a photography timing designation button is not depressed, the middle-resolution data is monitored in Dof a display through a buffer memory. When the photography timing designation button is depressed, high- and low-resolution data of three consecutive frames are generated and stored in Mto Mof the buffer memory, and low-resolution data are displayed in Dto Dof the display. The high-resolution data are compressed and encoded, and then stored in Cto Cof a main memory. When the user selects, e.g., Dof the displayed Dto Dwith a touch panel, the corresponding data of Cis extracted from Cto Cand stored in Fof a nonvolatile memory.