An image pickup device uses an image recognition system to control the actuation of an electronic shutter. The image pickup device has an optical lens that picks up an image through the electronic shutter and the image so picked up is detected by an image detection device and converted into image data that are applied to a temporary image holding memory of a micro-controller. The micro-controller carries out comparison of the image of a selected target that is picked up the optical lens with respect to a recognizable characteristic image contained in a recognizable characteristic image database. If the image of the selected target so picked up is recognized to match the recognizable characteristic image, then the micro-controller sends out a shutter control signal to control the actuation of the electronic shutter via a shutter control circuit to photograph and store the image of the target in an image storage memory.