JP2000152051A - Image pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively record and transfer the image signals which are obtained from plural image pickup optical systems by handling two sheets of image signals as a single image file. SOLUTION: In a mode (compound eye static image mode) where two sheets of images obtained from two optical systems are recorded and transferred, the two sheets of images written into a memory 115 are handled as a single sheet of image data of a prescribed image size and these image signals are defined as a single file. Thereafter, the image signals of two channels are processed as a single image file in the compressing, recording and transferring processes. That is, the image signals of two channels which are written into a memory 109 are read out of the memory 115 as a single file and outputted to a compression circuit 117 via a bus 113. The circuit 117 applies the compression/coding processing to the image file and outputs this processed file to a storage device 125.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus, and more particularly, to processing of image signals obtained by a plurality of image pickup optical systems.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a multi-view imaging apparatus having a plurality of imaging optical systems has been known.

For example, in an apparatus having two image pickup optical systems, two images picked up by matching the viewpoints of the respective optical systems are displayed in a two-dimensional direction at the boundary of the image pickup surface and displayed. A high-definition panoramic image can be obtained with an angle of view. According to such a method, distortion of an image can be reduced as compared with an image captured using one wide-angle imaging optical system, and a good image can be obtained.

If these two image pickup optical systems are arranged in parallel on the left and right and picked up, these images generate a parallax. Therefore, the parallax is stereoscopically viewed.
You can see images with a three-dimensional effect.

[0005] Such a method of displaying a stereoscopic image includes a method of arranging two picked-up left and right images line-sequentially and displaying the image on a direct-view stereoscopic display without glasses, or a method of arranging the image in a frame-sequential manner. There is a method of switching and displaying left and right images using liquid crystal shutter glasses.

In recent years, there has been proposed a system which displays image signals obtained by the plurality of imaging optical systems as a moving image.

[0007] Further, not only an image signal from a plurality of imaging optical systems but also an apparatus having one imaging optical system has a function of obtaining a panoramic image by synthesizing two separately shot images. There is also.

[0008]

However, in the above-described image pickup apparatus, one screen is recorded as one image file in the apparatus or in a recording medium attached to the apparatus, in image file units. Also, when transferring a captured image to an external device such as a computer, it is necessary to transfer the captured image in image file units.

That is, in addition to recording and transferring one image captured using one of the plurality of imaging optical systems, two or more images captured by the plurality of imaging optical systems In some cases, recording and processing must be performed simultaneously as separate image files, which complicates the processing.

[0010] Further, a method of recording and transferring moving images taken by a plurality of image pickup optical systems as a series of moving image files has not yet been defined.

Therefore, one moving image file must be generated from moving image signals of each channel obtained by a plurality of image pickup optical systems, and these must be recorded and transferred in order.

Therefore, one of the plurality of image pickup optical systems is provided.
In addition to recording and transferring moving images taken using one camera, moving images of multiple channels captured by multiple imaging optical systems are simultaneously recorded as separate image files, respectively.
In some cases, processing must be performed, and the processing becomes complicated.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem.

Another object of the present invention is to enable a more efficient recording and transfer of image signals obtained by a plurality of image pickup optical systems.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides a first lens unit and a first lens unit which receives subject light input through the first lens unit. 1
A first imaging unit having a first imaging unit that generates an image signal of the second type, a second lens unit, and a second image signal receiving subject light input through the second lens unit. A second imaging unit having a second imaging unit that generates an image signal; a processing unit that obtains an image signal of one channel based on the first image signal and the second image signal; Recording means for recording the output one-channel image signal on a recording medium.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an imaging apparatus 100 to which the present invention is applied.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of FIG.

The image pickup apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment has two image pickup optical systems, and the two image pickup optical systems obtained by these two image pickup optical systems.
A mode for recording and transferring two images as a still image (compound eye still image mode), a mode for recording and transferring an image obtained by one of the two imaging optical systems as a still image (monocular still image mode), A mode for recording and transferring two-channel moving image signals obtained by two imaging optical systems (compound eye moving image mode), and a mode for recording and transferring moving image signals obtained by one of the two imaging optical systems (Monocular video mode), and these modes can be set by a user's instruction.

The image pickup apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has two left and right image pickup optical systems 101a and 101b.
a, 103b and imaging elements 105a, 10 such as CCDs
5b. These image sensors 107a, 107b
Are driven according to the clock from the synchronization signal generation circuit 109. A / D converters 107a and 107b convert image signals (hereinafter, referred to as ch1 and ch2) output from the imaging elements 105a and 105b into digital signals and output the digital signals to the signal processing circuit 111, respectively. A signal processing circuit 111 performs processing such as gamma correction and WB on the image signals output from the A / D converters 107 a and 107 b and outputs the processed signals to a bus 113. Reference numeral 115 denotes a memory for storing an image signal. The memory 115 outputs an image signal to each circuit of the device via the buses 113 and 119, and stores the image signal from each circuit. A compression circuit 117 compresses and encodes an image signal according to a well-known JPEG format.

Reference numeral 121 denotes an operation unit for instructing the operation of the image pickup apparatus 100 or setting each of the above-mentioned recording modes, and has various switches. 123 is an MPU (Mic
ro Processing Unit), which controls each circuit of the apparatus according to software stored in a memory (not shown). 1
Reference numeral 25 denotes a storage device such as a flash memory card, which stores an image signal input via the bus 119, reads the stored image signal, and outputs the read image signal to each circuit via the bus 119. 127 is a communication interface (hereinafter, I / F), which is a USB (Universal Serial Interface).
Bus), an image signal is transferred to and from an external device via a transmission path 200 such as IEEE1394. Reference numeral 129 denotes a display unit including a liquid crystal display and a drive unit thereof, for example, an image obtained by an imaging optical system, or a storage device 125.
To display the image stored therein.

Next, the operation in each of the above-described recording modes will be described.

First, the compound-eye still image mode will be described.

When the compound-eye still image mode is set by the operation unit 121, the image signals of ch1 and ch2 obtained by the two imaging optical systems 101a and 101b are converted to the A / D converter 107.
a, 107b, the signal processing circuit 111 and the bus 113 are output to the display unit 129, and the images obtained by the imaging optical systems 101a and 101b are displayed on the display unit 129.

In this state, when an instruction to record a still image is issued from the operation unit 121, the image signals obtained from the imaging optical systems 101a and 101b are converted into digital signals by the A / D converters 107a and 107b, and the signals are processed. The signal is output to the circuit 111.

The signal processing circuit 111 performs processing such as gamma correction and WB on the two-channel image signals output from the A / D converters 107a and 107b.
13 to the memory 115. Signal processing circuit 1
Reference numeral 11 has an internal buffer memory, and in the present embodiment, one of the two-channel image signals synchronously output from the A / D converters 107a and 107b, and in this embodiment, holds the ch2 image signal in this buffer memory. In advance, after the image signal of ch1 is processed, the image signal of ch2 is read from the buffer memory and processed.

The image signal of each channel stored in the memory 113 is read out and output to the compression circuit 117 as described later. The compression circuit 117 performs a compression / encoding process on the image signal output from the memory 113, and
9 to the storage device 125. The storage device 125 stores the compressed still image signal.

In the compound-eye still image mode, a still image signal of two channels is stored as described above. However, if a simple attempt is made to compress and record an image signal of two channels, two compression and recording processes are required. Becomes However, in the imaging apparatus of the present embodiment, a still image signal of only one channel is recorded in the monocular still image mode.
Only the compression and recording processes are required.

Therefore, in the compound-eye still image mode, if the image signals of two channels are simply compressed and recorded as they are, the processing becomes complicated. In addition, the number of required processes differs for each process, and a configuration for selecting a process for each function (recording and transfer) is also required, which complicates the algorithm.

Therefore, it is desirable that the recording and transfer processes be performed in a unified image format in both monocular and compound-eye photography.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the signal processing device 111
Transfer of the two-channel image signal from the memory 113 to the memory 113 is performed as follows.

FIG. 2 shows the memory 1 in the compound-eye still image mode.
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a state of storing image signals for the image No. 15.

As described above, the imaging optical systems 101a,
1b, an image signal having an image size of vertical h pixels × horizontal w pixels is obtained.
5 is written. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, the write address is determined so that the image 201 of ch1 and the image 203 of ch2 are written adjacently in the memory 115.

That is, first, the write start address is set to the vertical address 0 and the horizontal address 0 (0, 0) and ch1.
Is written to the memory 115, and the vertical address 0 and the horizontal address w are used as the top addresses.
2 is written into the memory 115.

As described above, the image signal 201 of ch1 and ch
By writing the two image signals 203 into the memory 115, these two images are in the memory space of the memory 115 at the address h × 2w with the start address being (0, 0).
Will be continuously stored in the area.

In this embodiment, the two images written in the memory 115 in this way are treated as one image data having an image size of h × 2w, and the image signal having the size of h × 2w is stored in one file. And Thereafter, in the compression processing, the recording processing, and the transfer processing, these two channels of image signals are processed as one image file.

That is, when image signals of two channels are written in the memory 109, these two image signals are read out from the memory 115 as one file, and
And outputs the result to the compression circuit 117. The compression circuit 117 performs compression / encoding processing on the one image file, and outputs the image file to the storage device 125 via the bus 119.

In this embodiment, since two image signals are treated as one image file, for example,
Even when the image signal is transferred from the storage device 125 to the external device via the transmission path 200, the image signal is transferred in image file units.

Next, the monocular still image mode will be described.

When the monocular still image mode is set by the operation unit 121, an image signal obtained by one of the two imaging optical systems 101a and 101b, in this embodiment, 101a is converted into an A / D converter 107a and a signal processing circuit 111. The image is output to the display unit 129 via the bus 113, and the image obtained by the imaging system 101a is displayed on the display unit 129.

In this state, when a still image recording instruction is issued from the operation unit 121, the image signal for one screen obtained by the imaging optical system 101a is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 107a, and the signal processing is performed. The signal is output to the circuit 111. The signal processing circuit 111 processes the image signal from the A / D converter 107a as described above,
13 to the memory 115.

At this time, in the compound-eye still image mode, addresses are set so that two image signals are adjacent to each other on the memory 115 in order to treat a still image of two channels as one image file. In the mode, since only one still image of ch1 is obtained, this one still image is treated as one image file.

The image signal of ch1 written in the memory 115 is output to the compression circuit 117 via the bus 113, where it is compressed and encoded, and is written to the storage device 125 via the bus 119.

Further, the transmission path 20
When the image data is transferred to an external device via the “0”, the transfer process is performed in image file units (one image file is composed of one screen of still image in the single-eye still image mode).

As described above, in the present embodiment, in the compound-eye still image mode, the two still image signals obtained by the imaging optical systems 101a and 101b are written to adjacent addresses on the memory 115, and these two still images are written. As a single image file, not only does it save time for reading the two image signals from the memory, but also during the compression processing after reading, writing to a storage device, and transferring to an external device, 1 in picture mode
The same processing as the compression, recording, and transfer processing of one image signal can be performed.

That is, since unified processing can be applied to each mode, the algorithm can be simplified.

Next, the compound eye moving image mode will be described.

When the compound-eye moving image mode is set by the operation unit 121, the two-channel image signals obtained by the two imaging optical systems 101a and 101b are converted by the A / D converter 107a.
107b is output to the display unit 129 via the signal processing circuit 111 and the bus 113, and is output to the imaging optical systems 101a and 101b.
Is displayed on the display unit 129.

In FIG. 1, the viewpoints of the two image pickup optical systems are almost coincident by using a mirror or the like, and the boundaries between the left and right images partially overlap. Therefore, a high-definition and wide-angle panoramic image can be obtained from these two-channel image signals.

In this state, when a moving image recording instruction is issued from the operation unit 121, the two-channel moving image signals obtained by the imaging optical systems 101a and 101b are converted into digital signals by the A / D converters 107a and 107b. Is converted to
The signal is output to the signal processing circuit 111. Signal processing circuit 111
Uses a buffer memory to alternately process the image signals of ch1 and ch2 frame by frame.
3 to the memory 115.

The two-channel moving image signal output from the memory 115 is subjected to processing for forming a panoramic image in the memory 115, and is output to the compression circuit 117 via the bus 113. The compression circuit 117 is a memory 115
The compression / encoding process is performed on the moving image signal read from the storage device 125, and the result is written to the storage device 125 via the bus 119. Here, the compression circuit 117 performs compression / encoding processing according to the JPEG method on each frame of the moving image signal output from the memory 115. This is called the Motion JPEG method.

Here, when recording two channel image signals constituting one panoramic image as in the present embodiment, these are a set of image signals constituting one panoramic image in the subsequent processing. Must be recorded as additional information of the image signal.

When displaying a panoramic image, two
The moving image signal of the channel is divided for each frame, and these are combined and displayed, which complicates the processing.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the following processing is performed when a two-channel moving image signal is recorded in the compound eye moving image mode.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which image signals of two screens obtained by the first vertical synchronizing signal at the start of recording are written in the memory 115 in the compound-eye moving image mode.

As described above, these two screen images are captured by the imaging optical system having the same viewpoint, and the respective images have areas overlapping each other. Based on this overlap amount, two images can be synthesized as a panoramic image at a certain corresponding portion.

That is, when the image signals of two channels are output from the signal processing circuit 111, the image signals of these two screens are written in the memory 115. And MPU1
23, the corresponding points in the respective overlap regions are calculated by template matching, and the overlap regions are detected. As a result, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, it is assumed that x pixels overlap in the downward direction and y pixels overlap in the horizontal direction.

When the overlap area is determined, the image signal of ch1 is written in the memory 115 again with the start address being (0, 0). Then, the image signal of ch2 is stored so as to overlap the image of ch1 by x pixels vertically and y pixels horizontally. That is, for the image signal of ch2, the head address is written to the memory 115 as (x, wy).

As described above, by writing the image signals of two channels into the memory 115, these two image signals have the start addresses (0,
0) and is arranged in a continuous area of address h + x × 2w−y.

In the present embodiment, the two images written in the memory 115 in this way are treated as one image data obtained by panoramic synthesis. Thereafter, the panorama synthesizing process is similarly performed on each frame of the two-channel moving image signal, and the two-channel moving image signal is converted into a one-channel moving image signal by performing panoramic synthesis.
Treated as one moving image file.

That is, when image signals of two channels are written in the memory 109, these two image signals are panoramic-combined, a moving image signal of one channel is formed, read out from the memory 115, and compressed via the bus 113. Circuit 11
7 is output. The compression circuit 117 performs a compression / encoding process on the one moving image file and outputs it to the storage device 125 via the bus 119.

In this embodiment, as described above, the panoramic synthesizing process is performed on the two-channel moving image signal to generate a one-channel moving image signal, and the one-channel moving image signal is used as one moving image file. Therefore, for example, even when the image data is transferred from the storage device 125 to the external device via the transmission path 200, the image signal is transferred in units of the moving image file.

Next, the monocular moving image mode will be described.

When the monocular moving image mode is set by the operation unit 121, the image signal obtained by one of the two imaging optical systems 101a and 101b, in this embodiment, 101a is converted by the A / D converter 107a, the signal processing circuit 111, The image is output to the display unit 129 via the bus 113, and the image obtained by the imaging system 101a is displayed on the display unit 129.

In this state, when a moving image recording instruction is given from the operation unit 121, the image signal for one screen obtained by the imaging optical system 101a is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 107a, and the signal processing circuit It is output to 111. The signal processing circuit 111 processes the image signal from the A / D converter 107a as described above,
3 to the memory 115.

At this time, in the compound eye moving image mode, each frame of the two-channel moving image signal is panorama-combined to generate a one-channel moving image signal, and the two-channel moving image signal is handled as one moving image file. Although the addresses are set so that the image signals are overlapped on the memory 115, in the single-eye moving image mode, only the moving image of ch1 can be obtained, so this one-channel moving image signal is treated as one moving image file.

The ch1 moving image signal written in the memory 115 is output to the compression circuit 117 via the bus 113, where it is compressed and encoded, and is written to the storage device 125 via the bus 119.

Further, the transmission path 20
When the image data is transferred to an external device via the “0”, transfer processing is performed in image file units (in the single-eye moving image mode, one moving image file is composed of one channel moving image).

As described above, in the present embodiment, in the compound-eye moving image mode, each frame of the two-channel moving image signal obtained by the imaging optical systems 101a and 101b is stored in the memory 11
The panorama synthesizing process is performed by writing to the overlapping address on 5 to generate a one-channel moving image signal. By using the synthesized one-channel moving image signal as one moving image file, not only can the time and effort for reading the two-channel moving image signals from the memory be saved, but also the compression processing after reading and the storage device At the time of writing to the external device and transferring to an external device, the same processing as the compression, recording, and transfer processing of the moving image signal of one channel in the monocular video mode can be performed.

That is, since unified processing can be applied to each mode, the algorithm can be simplified and the number of processing steps of the MPU 123 can be reduced.

Next, the operation at the time of transferring the image signal stored in the storage device 125 in each mode as described above will be described.

When the transfer mode is set by the operation unit 121, the MPU 123 searches for an image file stored in the storage device 125 and displays the contents on the display unit 129.
To be displayed.

More specifically, the number and type of the file, that is, which mode the file was recorded in, and
The recording date and time are arranged and displayed.

The user operates the operation unit 121 to select an image file to be transferred based on the contents of the file displayed on the display unit 129 in this manner. When the file to be transferred is determined, the file is read from the storage device 125 and output to the communication I / F 127 via the bus 119.

The communication I / F 127 is the memory device 12
5 is converted into a format suitable for the transfer format of the transmission path 200 and output to the transmission path 200.

As described above, even when the image signal stored in the memory device 125 is transferred to the outside, the image signal recorded in the compound-eye still image mode or the compound-eye moving image mode is handled as a single image file. , Makes the process easier.

In the above-described embodiment, in the compound-eye still image mode, two images are stored so as to be horizontally adjacent in the memory space of the memory 115. However, the present invention is not limited to this. May be stored vertically adjacent to the memory space of the memory 115.

FIG. 4 shows the memory 1 in the compound-eye still image mode.
FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating another example of a state of storing image signals with respect to No. 15;

As described above, the imaging optical systems 101a, 101a,
1b, an image signal having an image size of vertical h pixels × horizontal w pixels is obtained.
5 is written. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, the write address is determined in the memory 115 so that the image 201 of ch1 and the image 203 of ch2 are written adjacently in the memory space in the vertical direction.

That is, first, the write start address is set to the vertical address 0 and the horizontal address 0 (0, 0) and ch1.
After writing the image signal 201 of the
2 is written into the memory 115.

As described above, the ch1 image signal 201 and ch
By writing the two image signals 203 into the memory 115, in the memory space of the memory 115, these two images have addresses 2h × w with the start address being (0, 0).
Will be continuously stored in the area.

In the present embodiment, the two images written in the memory 115 are treated as one image data having an image size of 2h × w, and the image signal having the size of 2h × w is processed as one file. And Thereafter, in the compression processing, the recording processing, and the transfer processing, these two channels of image signals are processed as one image file.

In the above-described embodiment, in the compound-eye moving image mode, each frame of the two-channel moving image signal is panorama-combined to generate a one-channel moving image signal.
This is compressed and recorded as one moving image file. However, the present invention is not limited to this. One channel moving image signal is generated from two channel moving image signals in another direction, and one moving image file is obtained. It may be.

That is, as shown in FIG.
, A two-channel image signal may be written, and the two-channel image signal may be alternately read out for each frame of each channel to obtain a one-channel moving image signal. At this time, for example, if the frame rate of each channel is 30 frames / second, the data is read from the memory 115 at a frame rate of 60 frames / second. The one-channel moving image signal 501 thus obtained is treated as one moving image file, and compression, recording, and transfer are performed.

As described above, when the image signals of the left and right channels are multiplexed in a plane-sequential manner to generate an image signal of one channel, which is compressed and recorded, an optimal format is obtained when stereoscopic display using a liquid crystal shutter is performed. .

In the compound-eye still image mode and the compound-eye moving image mode, the image signals of each channel are stored in the memory 11.
5 was written in a plane-sequential manner, but it is also possible to write in a dot-sequential or line-sequential manner.

In FIGS. 2 to 5, the manner in which the image signal of each channel is stored in the memory 115 is shown as a positional relationship on the memory address of the memory 115. Is the memory 11
5 is not limited to the physical positional relationship, and it is sufficient if the logical address positional relationship is as shown in FIGS.

In the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the storage device 12
Although 5 is a removable memory such as a flash memory card, the present invention is not limited to this, and a built-in semiconductor memory, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic tape, a hard disk, or the like may be used.

Although the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has two imaging optical systems, the present invention can be applied to an apparatus having three or more imaging optical systems, and has the same effect. .

[0089]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Image signals obtained by a plurality of imaging optical systems can be recorded and transferred more efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an imaging device as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state of an image signal on a memory in the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of an image signal on a memory in the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state of an image signal on a memory in the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an image signal processing operation in the apparatus of FIG. 1;

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification FI FI Theme Court ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/18 (72) Inventor Katsuhiko Mori 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. F term (reference) 5C022 AA13 AB00 AB19 AB61 AB68 AC03 AC42 AC54 AC69 AC75 AC80 5C023 AA11 AA34 AA37 BA08 CA03 CA05 DA04 5C054 CC00 DA06 EA01 EA03 EA07 EB05 EC07 ED13 EG06 EH07 EJ01 FD02 BA03 BA04

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A first image pickup unit having a first lens unit and a first image pickup unit that receives a subject light input through the first lens unit and generates a first image signal. A second imaging unit, comprising: a second lens unit; and a second imaging unit that receives a subject light input through the second lens unit and generates a second image signal. Processing means for obtaining a one-channel image signal based on the first image signal and the second image signal; and recording means for recording the one-channel image signal output from the processing means on a recording medium. Imaging device. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit has a memory for storing the first image signal and the second image signal, and obtains a one-channel image signal using the memory. The imaging device according to 1. 3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit obtains a one-channel image signal by synthesizing the first image signal and the second image signal using the memory. apparatus. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit combines the image signals of the respective frames of the first image signal and the second image signal to generate an image signal of one frame, and obtains the image signal of one channel. The imaging device according to claim 3, wherein: 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit obtains the one-channel image signal by compressing a time axis of the first image signal and the second image signal using the memory. 2. The imaging device according to 2. 6. The processor according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit alternately reads out the image signal of each frame of the first image signal and the second image signal stored in the memory, and compresses a time axis of the first image signal and the second image signal. The imaging device according to claim 5, wherein an image signal of a channel is obtained. 7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit writes the first image signal and the second image signal in the memory in a frame-sequential manner. 8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit writes the first image signal and the second image signal in the memory in a line-sequential manner. 9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said processing means writes the first image signal and the second image signal into the memory in a dot-sequential manner. 10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes a compression unit that performs a compression process on an amount of information and performs an encoding process on the image signal of the one channel. 11. A first image pickup unit comprising: a first lens unit; and a first image pickup unit that receives a subject light input through the first lens unit and generates a first image signal. A second imaging unit, comprising: a second lens unit; and a second imaging unit that receives a subject light input through the second lens unit and generates a second image signal. Processing means for generating a single image file from a first image signal and the second image signal; recording means for recording an image signal output from the processing means on a recording medium in units of the image file; An imaging device comprising: 12. The imaging apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said processing means has a memory, and generates said single image file using said memory. 13. The processing means writes the image signals of one screen of the first image signal and the second image signal to the memory so as to be adjacent to each other in the memory, and outputs the image signals of two screens on the memory. 13. The imaging apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a single image file is generated based on the image signal. 14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing means writes the image signals of one screen of the first image signal and the second image signal to the memory so as to be horizontally adjacent to each other in the memory. Item 14. The imaging device according to Item 13. 15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the processing unit writes the one image signal of each of the first image signal and the second image signal in the memory so as to be vertically adjacent to each other in the memory. Item 14. The imaging device according to Item 13. 16. The imaging apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a transfer unit that transfers an image signal recorded on the recording medium to the outside of the apparatus in units of the image file. 17. An image pickup unit, a processing unit for generating a single image file from a first image signal and a second image signal obtained from the image pickup unit, and an image signal output from the processing unit Recording means for recording the image file as a unit on a recording medium.