Patent ID: 6839087

Claim:
An exposure controller of a digital camera, comprising: a photometering sensor; and a control device; wherein said control device calculates a first exposure time in accordance with a photometering value obtained via said photometering sensor; said control device calculates a second exposure time shorter than said first exposure time in the case where said first exposure time is longer than a reference time duration; said control device performs a pre-exposure in which a sensitive surface of an image pick-up device of said digital camera is exposed at said second exposure time to calculate a brightness value in accordance with a picture signal which is output from said image pick-up device at said pre-exposure; and said control device calculates a third exposure time which is to be used at a main exposure, in which said sensitive surface of said image pick-up device is exposed to obtain a picture signal which is to be stored in a memory, by changing the value of one of said first exposure time and said second exposure time in accordance with said calculated brightness value.