Image processing apparatus, image processing method, a program, a recording medium recording this image capturing device, and the video recording and reproducing apparatus

The image processing apparatus (100) includes an input image data reduction processing unit generates the reduced image data from the (DIN) (D1) (1), the calculation for obtaining the dark channel value in a local region (D2), the position of the local region was carried out for the entire area of ​​the reduced image by changing, dark channel calculating section for outputting a plurality of dark channel value plurality of first dark channel value as (D2) (2) and a plurality of first dark channel value (D2) by performing the process of resolution of the first dark channel map consisting of the map resolution increasing processing unit that generates a second dark channel map comprising a plurality of second dark channel value (D3) (3) provided when, in the second dark channel map and based on the reduced image data (D1), the contrast correction unit for generating a corrected image data (DOUT) and (4) .