Image pickup apparatus that allows for short-distance photographing

An image pickup apparatus that allows for short-distance photographing, the apparatus comprising:

• a photographing lens portion including a focus lens and a variable power lens;
• an image pickup portion that converts an optical image of a subject obtained via the photographing lens portion into an image signal;
• a movement determining portion that determines whether the image pickup apparatus itself is moving along an optical axis in a direction in which the image pickup apparatus moves toward the subject or in a direction in which the image pickup apparatus move away from the subject, in a state where the photographing lens portion is positioned to focus on the subject;
• a recording portion that records images obtained by the image pickup portion;
• a control portion that, when the movement determining portion has determined that the image pickup apparatus itself is moving in a focused state, causes the variable power lens of the photographing lens portion to move, causes the image pickup portion to continuously pick up images of a plurality of regions of the subject at a same magnification and causes the images picked up by the image pickup portion at the same magnification to be stored in the recording portion;
• and
• an image combining portion that cuts out an image area having a predetermined contrast from each of the plurality of images at the same magnification recorded in the recording portion and generates one composite image.