IMAGE PICKUP ELEMENT, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHOD FOR IMAGE PICKUP ELEMENT

An imaging apparatus including a frame buffer executes high-speed shooting consecutively in plural sessions. An imaging element includes a buffer, an image producing unit, a managing unit, and an output unit. The image producing unit produces an image in the case where an empty capacity of any of plural areas in the buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The managing unit causes an area whose empty capacity exceeds the predetermined threshold value, of the plural areas to retain the image as a buffering image. The output unit extracts the buffering image from the buffer and outputting the buffering image, in order of the retention of the buffering image.