Patent ID: 7492405

Claim:
A camera apparatus comprising: a display device for displaying, in a standby state for taking a picture, an optical image of a subject to be photographed; a memory for storing plural photographing condition data corresponding to respective different photographing conditions, and plural sample images representing images of the subject, wherein the plural sample images correspond to the plural photographing condition data, respectively; a selector for selecting one of the sample images stored in the memory in response to a selecting operation; a selection starting unit for causing the selector to start selection of the sample image; a photographing-condition setting unit for setting a photographing condition to the camera apparatus based on the photographing condition data corresponding to the sample image selected by the selector in response to a decision operation; and a display controller for controlling the display device to display the sample image corresponding to the photographing condition set by the photographing-condition setting unit together with the optical image of the subject which is picked up by the camera apparatus based on the photographing condition set by the photographing-condition setting unit; wherein the selector restarts selection of the sample image when the selection starting unit causes the selector to start selection of the sample image after the photographing condition has been set by the photographing-condition setting unit; wherein the display controller controls the display device to cease displaying the sample image after displaying the sample image for a predetermined period of time; wherein a judging unit judges whether or not the display controller displays the sample image on the display device, when the selection starting unit has caused the selector to start selection of the sample image; and wherein the display controller controls the display device to display the sample image corresponding to the photographing condition currently set by the photographing-condition setting unit, when the judging unit determines that the sample image is not displayed on the display device.