An image-pickup apparatus for picking up an image using a solid-state image pickup device. The apparatus includes a first and a second input receiving parts for receiving different input signals in accordance with a user's input operation, an image-pickup-condition determination part for determining an optimum image-pickup condition to be set at image-pickup time, and an image-pickup controller for controlling such that the image-pickup-condition determination part starts a determination operation at input-signal receiving time of the first receiving part, when the input signal is received continuously and the second input receiving part receives an input signal after the optimum image-pickup condition is determined, an image picked up by applying the image-pickup condition determined to be the best is captured, and when the second input receiving part receives the input signal on the other conditions, a plurality of pickup images are captured continuously by applying different image-pickup conditions in sequence.