Patent ID: 7551222

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, comprising: an image pickup element for converting a light signal that is focused on an image pickup surface into an electric signal; a lens group for guiding a light of an object image to the image pickup element; an image pickup field angle changing section for driving a zoom lens in the lens group to change an image pickup field angle; a focus evaluation signal extraction circuit for extracting a focus evaluation signal corresponding to the sharpness level from an image signal obtained from the image pickup element; focusing means for driving a focus lens in the lens group according to an output of the focus evaluation signal extraction circuit; object distance detecting means for detecting a distance to an object according to positional information on the zoom lens and the focus lens; incident light intensity detecting means for detecting an incident light intensity to the image pickup element; image pickup direction changing means for changing an image pickup direction in the lens group; and a memory for storing information of distance to an object which is obtained from the object distance detecting means according to positional information of the image pickup direction changing means in a state where an output of the incident light intensity detecting means is equal to or higher than a predetermined value and in a state where AF can be conducted, wherein when it is determined that the output of the incident light intensity detecting means is lower than the predetermined value and AF cannot be conducted, the information of distance to an object is acquired from the memory according to the positional information of the image pickup direction changing means, and the focus lens is driven according to the information of distance to an object.