Patent ID: 7453495

Claim:
An electronic camera comprising: an image pickup part for performing still image pickup for shooting a subject image to generate a still image signal, and control image pickup for successively generating control image signals having a frame rate higher than that of the still image signal in time division; a still image processing part for accepting the still image signal generated by the image pickup part and applying predetermined still image signal processing thereto; a control image processing part for accepting the control image signals generated by the image pickup part and applying predetermined control signal processing thereto to extract control data; a control part for accepting the control data output from the control image processing part and performing at least one control operation out of exposure control, focus control, and white balance control, based on the control data; a first bus connected to the control image processing part, which transmits the control data; and a second bus connected to the still imaging processing part, which transmits the still image signal, wherein: the control image processing part and the still image processing part are configured to operate independently via the first bus and the second bus, and the control image processing part performs the signal processing on the control image signals successively generated, even when the still image signal is being signal-processed.