Patent ID: 7145602

Claim:
A method for controlling exposure of a digital camera comprising means for emitting auxiliary light, the method comprising the steps of: detecting the illuminance of outside light; determining whether or not the auxiliary light is required based on the detected illuminance of the outside light; prior to emitting the auxiliary light, detecting the luminance level of an object in an AE frame in a monitoring mode under the outside light; after emitting the auxiliary light, detecting again the luminance level of the object in an AF frame in a scan AF mode under the auxiliary light; determining whether or not the exposure amount of the AF frame has increased markedly than the exposure amount of the AE frame; and when it has been determined that the exposure amount of the AF frame has increased markedly in the determining step, performing an exposure controlling operation based on the luminance level in the AE frame, or, when it has been determined that the exposure amount of the AF frame has not increased markedly in the determining step, performing an exposure controlling operation based on the luminance level in the AF frame.