Image capturing apparatus including an image sensor having three photoelectric conversion characteristics with each corresponding to a range of luminance intensity

An image capturing apparatus, comprising:

• an image sensor having a first photoelectric conversion characteristic corresponding to a lower range of luminance intensity, a second photoelectric conversion characteristic being different from the first photoelectric conversion characteristic corresponding to a higher range of luminance intensity, and a third photoelectric conversion characteristic being different from the first and second photoelectric conversion characteristics, said third photoelectric conversion characteristic being a transient characteristic corresponding to a range of luminance intensity between the first photoelectric conversion characteristic and the second photoelectric conversion characteristic;
• a characteristic converting section configured to convert the first photoelectric conversion characteristic, the second photoelectric conversion characteristic and the third photoelectric conversion characteristic to a reference photoelectric conversion characteristic, the characteristic converting section including a storage section and a look up table;
• and
• a control section configured to control the output of data from the storage section to the look up table.

An image capturing apparatus, comprising:

• an image sensor, said image sensor having a plurality of pixels, each pixel having a plurality of transistors and a light sensitive element, said image sensor having a photoelectric response function and being configured to convert the luminance intensity of light on the surface of each of said pixels to an electric signal based on the photoelectric response function;
• and
• a characteristic converting section, said characteristic converting section including a storage section and a look up table, said characteristic converting section being configured to convert the electric signal into processed image data,
• wherein the photoelectric response function includes a first photoelectric conversion characteristic corresponding to a lower range of luminance intensity, a second photoelectric conversion characteristic corresponding to a higher range of luminance intensity, and a third photoelectric conversion characteristic corresponding to a range of luminance intensity between the first photoelectric conversion characteristic and the second photoelectric conversion characteristic, with each of said first, second, and third photoelectric conversion characteristics being different from each other.