Patent ID: 7719608

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup unit for picking up an image; a lens barrier for covering the front of a lens of the image pickup unit; a display for displaying image data recorded on a recording unit; and a controller for controlling mode switching of the image pickup apparatus in response to a mode switching command from a mode switching unit, the controller switching among three modes including an image pickup mode, a play mode, and a review mode, the image pickup mode supplying power to the image pickup unit for the image pickup unit to pick up the image, the play mode playing data on the display, executing power supplying to the image pickup unit for a predetermined threshold time, and stopping the power supplying to the image pickup unit after an elapse of the predetermined threshold time, and the review mode playing data on the display while executing the power supplying to the image pickup unit, wherein the controller executes state control of the image pickup unit, during the image pickup mode, sets an image pickup state to supply power to the image pickup unit for the image pickup unit to pick up the image, during the play mode, sets a review state to supply power to the image pickup unit from the start of the play mode to within the threshold time, and sets an off state to stop supplying power to the image pickup unit subsequent to the elapse of the threshold time, and during the review mode, sets the review state to supply power to the image pickup unit, and wherein the image pickup unit outputs a lens barrier driving signal to execute an opening and closing operation of the lens barrier in response to a state shifting of the image pickup unit, and wherein the controller outputs to the image pickup unit one of a validating command for validating the lens barrier driving signal and an invalidating command for invalidating the lens barrier driving signal thereby indirectly controlling the lens barrier during the state control of the image pickup unit, and at least at the mode switching from the image pickup mode to the review mode, outputs to the image pickup unit the invalidating command for invalidating the lens barrier driving signal to maintain the lens barrier at the open state.