Provided is a control device for controlling an imaging condition of a sensor having one or more pixels, comprising an event detection unit for detecting an event indicating that a luminance signal changes in excess of a predetermined threshold value in one or more pixels, and for outputting an event detection signal; a counter for counting a number of events detected by the event detection unit; and a control unit for controlling the imaging condition of the sensor, based on the event detection signal. In addition, provided is a control method for controlling an imaging condition of a sensor having one or more pixels. The control method comprises detecting an event indicating that a luminance signal changes in excess of a predetermined threshold value in one or more pixels; counting a number of events; and controlling the imaging condition of the sensor, based on the detection of events.

To provide an imaging device and an electronic device capable of capturing a motion of a subject at a moment desired by a user in the motions of the subject. A CIS (2) and an electronic device (1), which are examples of an imaging device according to the present disclosure, include an imaging unit (5), a memory (6), a detection unit (82), and an erasing unit (83). The imaging unit (5) continuously captures images of the subject to generate image data. The memory (6) stores image data. The detection unit (82) detects the amount of motion of the subject based on the image data in time series. The erasing unit (83) erases image data in which the amount of motion of the subject is less than a predetermined amount of motion.

The present disclosure relates to an imaging device, an imaging method, and a program that make it possible to implement an appropriate auto white balance (AWB) lock desired by a user.

As a shutter button setting for applying the AWB lock, any one of Shutter Halfway Down, Continuous Shooting, or Off can be select and set. Furthermore, a setting is configured in which an AWBL button is assigned to a custom button so that the AEB lock can be applied by either a hold operation or a toggle operation. The present disclosure can be applied to an imaging device.

A finder apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an optical finder for observing an optical image of a subject using an eyepiece portion, a display device that displays information, a half mirror that is arranged on an optical path of the optical finder, an electronically variable ND filter that is inserted on a subject side from the half mirror on the optical path of the optical finder, a brightness information acquisition unit that acquires brightness information of external light, a brightness measurement unit that measures brightness of the incident external light, and a transmittance calculation unit that calculates transmittance of the electronically variable ND filter in real time based on the measured brightness and the acquired brightness information.

Provided is a control device for controlling an imaging condition of a sensor having one or more pixels, comprising an event detection unit for detecting an event indicating that a luminance signal changes in excess of a predetermined threshold value in one or more pixels, and for outputting an event detection signal; a counter for counting a number of events detected by the event detection unit; and a control unit for controlling the imaging condition of the sensor, based on the event detection signal. In addition, provided is a control method for controlling an imaging condition of a sensor having one or more pixels. The control method comprises detecting an event indicating that a luminance signal changes in excess of a predetermined threshold value in one or more pixels; counting a number of events; and controlling the imaging condition of the sensor, based on the detection of events.

To provide an imaging device and an electronic device capable of capturing a motion of a subject at a moment desired by a user in the motions of the subject. A CIS (2), which is an example of an imaging device according to the present disclosure, includes an imaging unit (5), a memory (6), a detection unit (83), and a decision unit (84). The imaging unit (5) continuously captures images of the subject to generate image data. The memory (6) stores image data. The detection units (83) detects motions of the subject based on the image data. The decision unit (84) decides the image data in which the motion of the subject in a direction matching the moving direction of the subject predicted based on the image data has been detected by the detection unit, as image data to be saved in the memory.

A region extracting section 31 extracts an image of a subject region and an image of a background region from a picked up image. A region-specific exposure control amount calculating section 33 calculates a subject region exposure control amount based on the image of the subject region and a background region exposure control amount based on the image of the background region. An exposure control amount calculating section 34 sets a contribution ratio of the subject region exposure control amount and a contribution ratio of the background region exposure control amount, and calculates an exposure control amount for use in exposure adjustment by mixing the subject region exposure control amount and the background region exposure control amount at a mixing ratio based on the set contribution ratios. A control section 55 controls a shutter speed, an aperture value, and other settings based on the exposure control amount calculated by the exposure control amount calculating section 34. Thus, regardless of whether or not flash light emission is to be performed, stable exposure is obtained with natural, balanced brightness ensured in the picked up image.

A region extracting section 31 extracts an image of a subject region and an image of a background region from a picked up image. A region-specific exposure control amount calculating section 33 calculates a subject region exposure control amount based on the image of the subject region and a background region exposure control amount based on the image of the background region. An exposure control amount calculating section 34 sets a contribution ratio of the subject region exposure control amount and a contribution ratio of the background region exposure control amount, and calculates an exposure control amount for use in exposure adjustment by mixing the subject region exposure control amount and the background region exposure control amount at a mixing ratio based on the set contribution ratios. A control section 55 controls a shutter speed, an aperture value, and other settings based on the exposure control amount calculated by the exposure control amount calculating section 34. Thus, regardless of whether or not flash light emission is to be performed, stable exposure is obtained with natural, balanced brightness ensured in the picked up image.

An image capturing apparatus comprises: a first image sensor having a plurality of pixels each counts a number of entering photons and outputs a count value as a first image signal; a second image sensor having a plurality of pixels each outputs an electric signal corresponding to a charge amount obtained by performing photoelectric conversion on entering light as a second image signal; and a generator that generates an image by selecting one of the first image signal and the second image signal.

An image capturing apparatus comprises: a first image sensor having a plurality of pixels each counts a number of entering photons and outputs a count value as a first image signal; a second image sensor having a plurality of pixels each outputs an electric signal corresponding to a charge amount obtained by performing photoelectric conversion on entering light as a second image signal; and a generator that generates an image by selecting one of the first image signal and the second image signal.