PURPOSE: To attain 2-way communication of an image by connecting a communication equipment making transmission/reception of an image signal, a demodulator and a monitor displaying an image to be sent/received to a video camera through a telephone line.

CONSTITUTION: When the video camera is used as a video telephone set, a phone call is made to a destination by a telephone set 43 via a modem 41 to connect a telephone line 39 and an operation section 11 makes image pickup operation. An image pickup section 5 picks up an image and an image signal conversion section 7 converts the image signal and the converted image is displayed on a small screen 37a of a monitor 37. Then an image signal from the conversion section 7 is tentatively stored in a storage section 19 by the transmission operation of the operation section 11, compressed by an image compression section 21 and sent to the opposite party through the line 39 from a transmission section 23 and the modem 41. Conversely, the image signal from the opposite party is given to a reception section 29 through the modem 41 and displayed on the monitor 37 and communication is made while viewing both the transmission images of this side and the received image from the opposite party by the image two-way communication of the opposite party.