Patent ID: 7742096

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: a body; an image taking lens retractable into said body of the image pickup apparatus; a driving ring configured to rotate to cause said image taking lens to move on an optical axis, said driving ring having a flange member; a lens barrier configured and positioned to protect said image taking lens; a lens barrel disposed so as to open said lens barrier while said image taking lens moves from a retracted position thereof to a shooting zone, and to close said lens barrier while said image taking lens moves from the shooting zone to the retracted position, while being rotated by a stepping motor; a detecting device that detects said flange member to determine whether or not said image taking lens is positioned at one of a first reference position of said lens barrel and a second reference position of said lens barrel, wherein during a closing operation of said lens barrier, the first reference position is arranged so as to correspond to a position of said lens barrier in a fully closed state, and the second reference position is arranged so as to correspond to a position of said lens barrier in a fully opened state during an opening operation of said lens barrier; and a position control device that controls a position of said lens barrel by resetting pulse counts of the stepping motor when said detecting device detects that said image taking lens is positioned at one of the first reference position and the second reference position.