Patent ID: 7508443

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: a light emitting element; an image sensor which forms an image of an object to be shot and outputs image pickup signals; a first light emission control unit which causes the light emitting element to perform a first preliminary light emission with a first light emission amount and a second preliminary light emission with a second light emission amount that is different from the first light emission amount; a first calculation unit which calculates a first brightness of the object based on a first image pickup signal output from the image sensor at the first preliminary light emission and a second brightness of the object based on a second image pickup signal output from the image sensor at the second preliminary light emission; a second light emission control unit which causes the light emitting element to stop any preliminary light emission after the second preliminary light emission irrespective of the first brightness and the second brightness calculated by the first calculation unit; a second calculation unit which calculates a brightness change ratio between the first brightness and the second brightness calculated by the first calculation unit; a third calculation unit which calculates an appropriate light emission amount of the light emitting element for shooting based on the brightness change ratio calculated by the second calculation unit; and a third light emission control unit which causes the light emitting element to emit light at the appropriate light emission amount calculated by the third calculation unit when shooting.