Patent ID: 8254775

Claim:
An autofocus control method for adjusting a position of a lens to bring the subject of interest into focus, comprising the steps of: providing an arrangement wherein a ring-like region excluding a central region from an image pickup area is set up as a preset focus area for judgment of the degree of in-focus; acquiring an image signal through the lens and an image pickup part; calculating, based on the image signal thus acquired, a contrast value indicating the degree of in-focus of the preset focus area; determining a lens position corresponding to a maximum contrast value as an in-focus lens position; wherein, after autofocus processing is started, scene judgment is carried out to check whether or not the subject of interest is located at a near position with respect to a distant view; wherein, if the result of scene judgment indicates that the subject of interest is not located at a near position with respect to the distant view concerned, the entire image pickup area is set up as a focus area, and focus adjustment is performed based thereon; and wherein, if the result of scene judgment indicates that the subject of interest is located at a near position with respect to the distant view concerned, focus adjustment is performed based on the preset focus area.