Color image color shift correction method and color image imaging apparatus

A color image imaging apparatus comprising:

• a monochrome imaging device;
• a color filter device which has color filters of at least primaries and sequentially switches to place one of the color filters onto a photographing optical path of the monochrome imaging device;
• an imaging control device which, when imaging an object, controls the color filter device and monochrome imaging device and acquires field sequential image data;
• a storage device which temporarily stores the acquired field sequential image data for each of color planes;
• a color shift detection device which detects a color shift on an imaging surface of the monochrome imaging device on the basis of the field sequential image data stored in the storage device, the color shift detection device comprising a device which performs a pixel shift operation, relative to the field sequential image data of each of the color planes stored in the storage device, for the field sequential image data of the remaining color planes and obtains the field sequential image data having undergone the pixel shift operation, a determination device which determines whether a color of each of pixels of color image data obtained by combining the field sequential image data having undergone the pixel shift operation is imaginary, wherein an imaginary color is a color outside the optimal range for a color space, a calculation device which counts the number of pixels determined by the determination device to have imaginary color and calculates the number of pixels within one frame that have imaginary color, and a device which detects, as a color shift, a pixel shift operation in which the number of pixels calculated by the calculation device is the minimum;
• and
• a color shift correction device which corrects a color shift in the field sequential image data stored in the storage device on the basis of the color shift detected by the color shift detection device.

A color image imaging apparatus comprising:

• a color separation optical system which separates object light incident through a photographic lens into color components of primaries;
• three monochrome imaging devices on which object light beams with the respective color components, having undergone the separation by the color separation optical system, come incident;
• an imaging control device which acquires image data of the primaries from the three monochrome imaging devices;
• a storage device which temporarily stores the acquired image data of the primaries for each of color planes;
• a color shift detection device which detects a color shift on imaging surfaces of the three monochrome imaging devices on the basis of the image data of each of the color planes stored in the storage device, the color shift detection device comprising a device which performs a pixel shift operation, relative to the image data of each of the color planes stored in the storage device, for the image data of the remaining color planes and obtains the image data of each of the color planes having undergone the pixel shift operation, a determination device which determines whether a color of each of pixels of color image data obtained by combining the image data of each of the color planes having undergone the pixel shift operation is imaginary, wherein an imaginary color is a color outside the optimal range for a color space, a calculation device which counts the number of pixels determined by the determination device to have imaginary color and calculates the number of pixels within one frame that have imaginary color, and a device which detects, as a color shift, a pixel shift operation in which the number of pixels calculated by the calculation device is the minimum;
• and
• a color shift correction device which corrects a color shift in the image data of each of the color planes stored in the storage device on the basis of the color shift detected by the color shift detection device.