We present a fast adaptive block matching algorithm using variable search area and subsampling to estimate motion vector more exactly. In the presented method, the block is classified into one of three motion categories: zero motion vector block, medium-motion bolck or high-motion block according to mean absolute difference of the block. By the simulation, the computation amount of the presented methoe comparable to three step search algorithm and new three step search algorithm. In the fast image sequence, the PSNR of our algorithm increased more than TSS and NTSS, because our algorithm estimated motion vector more accurately.