Patent ID: 8521016

Claim:
A camera system comprising an interchangeable lens and a camera body, the interchangeable lens comprising: a focus lens operable to move back and forth in an optical axis direction to change a focus status of a subject image; a driver operable to drive the focus lens; a position detector operable to detect a position of the focus lens; a storage unit operable to store position information on the detected position of the focus lens; a position information transmission unit operable to transmit the position information stored in the storage unit to the camera body; a lens controller operable to control an operation of the interchangeable lens based on control signals received from the camera body, and a first position detection cancellation unit operable to generate a first position detection cancellation signal for instructing cancellation of the position detection by the position detector based on a first cancellation condition, the camera body comprising: an imaging unit operable to image a subject to generate image data; a timing signal transmission unit operable to generate a predetermined timing signal and transmit the timing signal to the interchangeable lens; a drive signal transmission unit operable to generate a drive signal for driving the focus lens and transmit the drive signal to the interchangeable lens; a body controller operable to control an operation of the camera body, and a second position detection cancellation unit operable to generate a second position detection cancellation signal for instructing cancellation of the position detection by the position detector based on a second cancellation condition and transmit the second position detection cancellation signal to the interchangeable lens, wherein the body controller controls the drive signal transmission unit to drive the focus lens in a predetermined direction along the optical axis, and performs control to transmit the timing signal to the interchangeable lens, wherein the lens controller performs control to detect a position of the focus lens in synchronization with the timing signal received from the camera body and store information on the detected position in the storage unit, and the position information transmission unit transmits the position information stored in the storage unit to the camera body when the second position detection cancellation signal is received from the camera body or when the first position detection cancellation unit generates the first position detection cancellation signal.