Patent ID: 6980252

Claim:
An electronic camera comprising: a signal processing portion for processing an imaged video signal obtained from an imaging element to form image data; a monitor for displaying said image data; an electronic flash device; a battery for supplying voltage to said signal processing portion, said monitor and said electronic flash device; a battery voltage detector circuit; and a system controller; wherein: said electronic flash device includes a capacitor charged when no light is emitted from the flash device, and a discharge tube which receives an output from capacitor and, in response thereto, emits light; and said system controller receives an output from said battery voltage detector circuit, determines whether an amount of electric charge remaining in said battery is below a predetermined value, and controls displaying on said monitor and charging of said capacitor such that, when the amount of electric charge remaining in said battery is below said predetermined value, display of the image data and charging of the capacitor are not simultaneously performed and an operation of displaying the image data on the monitor and recording the image data on a recording medium is completed before an operation of charging the capacitor occurs so that the image data will be preserved on the medium should the battery voltage, as a result of the charging operation, decrease below a level at which the camera would record the image, wherein the image data is displayed on the monitor after the image has been recorded but before the capacitor has begun charging such that, through display of the image data, a user is informed that the image data has been recorded on the medium.