The short distance iris recognition camera of the present invention has a prism, installed on top of a guide for an infrared LED light, which has an inclined surface and a protrusion part, thereby enhancing the degree of uniformity in brightness around an iris, and thus enhancing iris recognition, and also effectively preventing static electricity from being delivered to internal devices. To accomplish this, the camera for iris recognition according to the present invention comprises a sensor and accessory circuits, a lens, and a lighting source including a white light and an infrared LED light. The lighting source is spaced apart from the lens centerline by a set length. The object plane of the lens is located where the iris is located, and is spaced apart by a set length L from the end of the lens. In practice, the object plane comprises the area around the lens centerline. The phase surface of the lens is an image sensor surface. The lighting source is disposed exactly or nearly parallel to the lens centerline such that the lighting centerline directs the object plane of the lens and has a lighting inclination angle of at least the arctangent of D/L with respect to the centerline of the lens. And also, the lighting centerline is separated from the centerline of the lens and inclined with respect to the object plane.