Patent ID: 7940324

Claim:
A method of exposure control in an image pickup apparatus which includes sensing an image with a solid-state image sensing device, moving a zoom lens and a focus lens along a light axis, sensing a rate of white color in said image with a light receiving element, color correcting an image taken on the basis of a rate of white color contained in the taken image with a white balance changing unit, changing an exposure time based on color correction processing by the white balance changing unit by means of an automatic exposure control unit, changing a shutter speed and a frame rate of the image sensor, linking an autofocus control unit with the focus lens based upon movement of the zoom lens, and using a photometric unit comprising a light receiving element, the method further comprising: determining whether or not the zoom lens has been moved, based on information about a zooming position of the zoom lens obtained from the autofocus control unit; determining whether or not an F value obtained from information about a focal position of the focus lens linked to movement of the zoom lens has changed; estimating variations in a focus luminance before and after a change in the F value based upon an F value before and an F value after when the F value has been changed; changing the shutter speed according to a focus luminance before the change to a shutter speed and after the change in shutter speed; and changing a frame rate according to a focus luminance before a change in shutter speed and a focus luminance after a change in shutter speed.