Patent ID: 8095000

Claim:
A camera system comprising: an interchangeable lens; and a camera body; wherein the camera body comprises a signal generating portion that generates a timing signal periodically, an imaging device that generates image data by exposure at a timing in correlation with the timing signal generated by the signal generating portion, an evaluation value calculating portion that calculates an evaluation value for autofocus based on the image data generated by the imaging device, and a body control portion that controls the camera body, the interchangeable lens comprises a focus lens that moves forward and backward along an optical axis direction, thereby varying a focusing state of a subject image, a driving member that drives the focus lens, a position detection portion that detects a position of the focus lens or a mechanism member moving together with the focus lens, and a lens control portion that controls the driving member according to a control signal from the body control portion, the lens control portion obtains the timing signal that is generated by the signal generating portion from the camera body, causes the position detection portion to detect the position of the focus lens or the mechanism member according to the obtained timing signal, and notifies the camera body of the detected position of the focus lens or the mechanism member, and the body control portion associates the position of the focus lens or the mechanism member obtained from the lens control portion with the evaluation value for autofocus based on the image data generated by the imaging device that is calculated by the evaluation value calculating portion based on the timing signal that is generated by the signal generating portion, and controls an autofocus operation of the camera system based on the position and evaluation value that are associated with each other.