Patent attributes
In an electronic camera, during a photographing operation for photographing a white sheet of paper or the like to obtain white balance data, a plurality of distance measuring points provided in an automatic focusing mechanism are restricted to only the one that is located at a central portion of the image plane. Further, a determination level used for determining an in-focus state in the automatic focusing mechanism is set lower than where an ordinary object is photographed. Accordingly, the photographing operation for obtaining white balance data can be completed for a short time. Furthermore, if the automatic focusing operation itself is inhibited during the photographing operation for photographing a white sheet of paper or the like to obtain white balance data, that photographing operation can be completed for a very short time.