Patent ID: 7970270

Claim:
An image pick-up apparatus, comprising: a photographing lens arranged to focus light received from a subject; a main mirror arranged so that light passing through the photographing lens is incident thereupon, the main mirror being partially reflective such that a portion of the light passing through the photographing lens is allowed to pass through the main mirror while remaining portion of the light passing through the photographing lens is reflected off the main mirror; an auto focus module configured to detect a state of focus of the photographing lens on the subject; and a sub-mirror operable to move independently from a movement of the main mirror, the sub-mirror being arranged to reflect the light passing through the photographing lens toward the auto focus module, wherein the auto focusing apparatus is operable in a mode in which the light passing through the photographing lens is reflected by the sub-mirror toward the auto focus module without being incident upon the main mirror.