Patent ID: 7362367

Claim:
A digital camera that forms, on a solid state imaging device, an object image resulting from object light transmitted via a photographing optical system, to obtain image data representative of the object image, the digital camera comprising: an internal memory; an installed memory, different from the internal memory; a mode switching section that switches the camera to an arbitrary one of a plurality of photographing modes to perform an actual photographing operation, at least one of the plurality of photographing modes including a photographing memory sub-mode in which image data on a desired object is obtained; an image display section that displays an image based on the image data; a distance measuring section that measures a distance to the object; a focusing section that performs focusing in accordance with the distance measured by the distance measuring section; and a controller for controlling operations of the camera, wherein in the photographing memory sub-mode of the at least one of the plurality of photographing modes, the controller: directs performance of a composition determining operation in which freeze image data, representative of through image data currently formed on the solid state imaging device, is obtained and temporarily stored in the internal memory, directs the focusing section to cause the distance measuring section to measure the distance when the composition determining operation is performed and to temporarily store the distance in the internal memory, and after the composition determining operation has been finished and before the actual photographing operation of the at least one of the plurality of photographing modes corresponding to the photographing memory sub-mode is started, directs the image display section to display, in a superimposing manner, a composition based on the freeze image data obtained as a result of the composition determining operation and the through image representative of the object image currently formed on the solid state imaging device, and during the actual photographing operation in the at least one of the plurality of photographing modes corresponding to the photographing memory sub-mode, the controller directs performing focusing in accordance with the distance measured when the composition determining operation was performed.