Patent ID: 8830354

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus comprising: an image sensor including multiple pixels, each pixel having multiple photoelectric converters that receive light beams that have passed through different areas of an exit pupil of an optical system and that output pupil-divided image signals, a storage unit that stores the respective pupil-divided image signals output from the respective photoelectric converters, and a control unit that switches between an operation of outputting the individual pupil-divided image signals stored in the storage unit, and an operation of adding the image signals on a pixel-by-pixel basis and outputting the resulting signal; a determination unit configured to determine a focus control area that is an area of the image sensor where is to be focused, using an image expressed by the image signal output from the image sensor; and a focus control unit configured to carry out focus control according to the phase difference detection method based on the pupil-divided image signals output from the pixels within the focus control area, wherein the control unit switches between an operation that the pupil-divided image signals output from pixels within the focus control area are output individually, and an operation that the pupil-divided image signals output from pixels outside of the focus control area are added on a pixel-by-pixel basis and output.