A technique of acquiring a width obtaining an appropriate
exposure with minimum restrictions, while accurately correcting flickering is provided. An
exposure control method includes integrating a video
signal obtained by shooting a subject by means of a
CMOS imaging element as input video
signal over not less than a horizontal period, normalizing the integral value or the difference value of the integral value between neighboring fields or frames, extracting the integral value or the difference value after the normalization as
flicker spectrum, determining, based on the extracted
flicker spectrum, the presence or absence of a
flicker component contained in the video
signal obtained by the imaging element and controlling the
exposure value, using a program diagram for preferentially employing the
shutter speed less liable to produce flickering when it is determined that the video signal contains a flicker component.