Patent ID: 7391463

Claim:
An image sensing apparatus having a distance measuring unit, comprising: an image sensing element to form an object image which enters via a photographing optical system; a distance measuring unit to measure distances to a plurality of points within a photographing frame using an optical path different from an optical path of photographing optical system; a determination unit to determine a relationship between a distance measuring result of the distance measuring unit and a drive amount of the photographing optical system, on the basis of the distance measuring result upon measuring a distance to a first point of the plurality of points by the distance measuring unit and a change in contrast of the object image formed at a position corresponding to the first point on the image sensing element when a focal point position of the photographing optical system has changed; and a control unit to control the focal point position of the photographing optical system, on the basis of a distance measuring result of the distance measuring unit at a second point of the plurality of points, which is different from the first point and the relationship determined by the determination unit, wherein the distance measuring unit comprises: a distance calculation unit to calculate distances to objects present at the plurality of points by detecting image signals of the objects present at the plurality of points; and a setting unit to set a highest-contrast point of plurality of points as the first point, and to set a point corresponding to the nearest distance to the object calculated by the distance calculation unit as the second point.