The present invention relates to an image-taking apparatus which has a sound (voice) processing function.
Digital still cameras capable of taking video images are recently increased, and these cameras generally have a microphone for inputting sound in their camera bodies. Further, digital still camera capable of inputting not only conventional monaural sound but also stereo sound is increased. In contrast, most video cameras have a stereo sound inputting function.
The miniaturization of digital still cameras requires an effective arrangement of stereo microphones.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.2000-165718 discloses a stereo microphone technique of a video camera which has three microphones that the two of them are arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions with respect to the other as a vertex around an image-taking lens, three amplifiers each amplifying the output from each of the microphones, and a sound signal processing circuit selecting the two outputs from the three amplifiers to output them as left and right sound signals depending on the orientation of a CCD image-pickup element.
As described above, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.2000-165718 discloses a stereo sound input system capable of changing the microphones depending on the orientation of the camera. However, the publication does not disclose an effective arrangement of the stereo microphones for the miniaturization of the camera.