PURPOSE: To record information such as the wide angle or telephoto lens of the monitoring camera, the setting of direction, and the generation of abnormal ity by providing a photographing means which automatically starts photographing when an event set in advance is detected.

CONSTITUTION: When a user calls with a TV telephone 1 from outside, a communication control part 3 detects the presence or absence of the telephone and operates a response control part 4 and connects a line to a system control part 5 to make the communication with the user available. Then the user sets the direction of a monitor camera 8 with a dial signal and sets it to the proper photographing position with the use of the wide angle or telephoto lens function by a zoom lense. A setting event detection means 13 informs the system controller 5 of the generation of abnormality and it takes the abnormality state such as an intrusion of a stranger and a fire generation as a picture by the monitoring camera 8 through a direction setting control part 6 and a zooming control part 7. The acquired picture information is automatically recorded through the picture control part 9.