An image pickup apparatus 100 includes an image pickup element 101 that includes a plurality of pixels that function as both imaging pixels and focus detection pixels, which is configured so that an image pickup signal that is obtained by performing photoelectric conversion in a first direction, an evaluation value generating unit 107 that generates an evaluation value of the image pickup signal, a flicker detecting unit 108 that detects variation information of illumination intensity based on the evaluation value, a flicker correction value generating unit 109 that generates a flicker correction value for performing a flicker correction for the image pickup signal based on the variation information, a multiplier 105 that performs the flicker correction for the image pickup signal based on the flicker correction value, and a vertical correlation calculating unit 114 that performs a correlation calculation in the first direction after the flicker correction is performed.