An image pickup apparatus is disclosed which provides an appropriate inclination guide display in accordance with an aspect ratio of a picked-up image and the like. The image pickup apparatus includes an inclination detector which detects an inclination of the image pickup apparatus, a display device capable of superimposedly showing an inclination guide display corresponding to a detection output from the inclination detector, on a picked-up image, and an aspect ratio setter which sets the aspect ratio of a picked-up image. The apparatus includes a display controller which controls whether or not to show the inclination guide display on the display device on the basis of the aspect ratio set by the aspect ratio setter.