Patent ID: 7633546

Claim:
An image capture apparatus comprising: a filter, arranged to reduce a transmitting light amount of an image capture optical system by being inserted into an optical path of the image capture optical system; a filter control circuit, arranged to insert or withdraw the filter into or from the optical path; a switch-over switch operative by a user to generate a signal for causing the filter control circuit to switch the filter to one of an insertion state and a withdrawal state in response to a user operation; and an electric power switch, arranged to activate a power source, wherein, when the power source is activated by the electric power switch, the filter control circuit makes the signal from the switch-over switch invalid to control the filter in accordance with an object state so as to automatically insert the filter into the optical path when a brightness of an object is higher than a reference value, and to automatically withdraw the filter from the optical path when the brightness of the object is lower than the reference value.