Patent ID: 7190389

Claim:
A stereo camera comprising: a pair of photographing optical systems that produce a corresponding pair of photographing areas, said pair of photographing optical systems being located in a common plane to produce a common photographing coverage between each of the pair of photographing areas, each photographing optical system including an image pickup device that performs a passive distance measurement of an object distance; an object distance measuring device that performs an active distance measurement to measure a distance to an object; a convergence angle adjustment mechanism that varies an angle of convergence, defined by optical axes of said pair of photographing optical systems, to adjust an amount of the common photographic coverage of said pair of photographing optical systems; and a controller that controls each of the pair of photographing optical systems to perform the passive distance measurement of an object distance until such time as a release button is depressed at least by a half step, controls the object distance measuring device to perform the active distance measurement after the release button is depressed at least by a half step, and controls the convergence angle adjustment mechanism in accordance with object distance data corresponding to the measured distance to the object obtained by the active distance measurement.