Patent ID: 7551847

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus with a lens assembly comprising a movable focus lens, having a manual focus function which adjusts a shooting distance by a user, and a movable zoom lens having a zoom function between a tele-end and a wide-angle end which changes a focal length of said lens assembly, said lens assembly having a telemacro shooting function for setting the focal length on the tele-end to focus on a subject at a close distance that may not achieve focus on said subject in normal shooting, the image pickup apparatus comprising: a shooting module responsive to a switching instruction to switch between a telemacro mode where said telemacro shooting function is operable and a normal mode where said telemacro shooting function is not operable; a zoom lens drive module which drives said zoom lens to adjust the focal length; a focus lens drive module which drives said focus lens to adjust the shooting distance; a storing module which stores the shooting distance established in the telemacro mode before switching from the telemacro mode to the normal mode when said switching instruction is received; and a control module, responsive to user manipulation to change the focal length of the lens assembly, to control the focus and zoom lens drive modules to move a combination point representing the combination of the position of the focus lens and the position of the zoom lens along a path whereat the lens assembly is focused at the shooting distance stored in the storing module when the shooting module switches from the telemacro mode to the normal mode.