Patent ID: 7292280

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling an aperture of a camera, comprising: a first determining device that determines an aperture range for a normal shooting which secures predetermined optical capability which is required for capturing images, except during automatic exposure, automatic focus, electronic zoom, real-time displaying of a moving image, recording of the moving image, and recording of an image with low resolution due to reduced pixels; a second determining device that determines an aperture range including an aperture out of the aperture range for the normal shooting; and a controlling device that controls a diaphragm mechanism; the controlling device capable of setting the aperture out of the aperture range for the normal shooting as determined by said second determining device when obtaining at least one of photometry data of automatic exposure and video signals of auto focus, and the controlling device capable of setting the aperture within the aperture range determined by said first determining device when recording an image.