Image pickup apparatus with distance measurement dependent on object lighting condition

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus is provided with an image sensor, a light emission part for illuminating an object by emitting light, a light measuring part for measuring a luminance of the object on the basis of a signal from the image sensor, a distance measuring part for measuring a distance to the object, an operation member for performing a first operation and a second operation for picking up an image of the object, and a control part for controlling the image sensor, the light emission part, the light measuring part and the distance measuring part in response to the first operation and the second operation of the operation member. In response to the first operation of the operation member, the control part causes the light measuring part to measure the luminance, determines whether or not light emission by the light emission part is necessary according to information on the luminance measured by the light measuring part and causes the distance measuring part to measure the distance, and in response to the second operation of the operation part, if light emission by the light emission part is necessary, the control part first controls an iris on the basis of information on the distance measured by the distance measuring part, causes the light emission part to emit light for a predetermined period of time and causes a preliminary exposure to be made on the image sensor, and then the control part causes the light emission part to emit light for a period of time decided on the basis of information on the luminance measured by the light measuring part during the preliminary exposure and causes a main exposure to be made on the image sensor.