Patent ID: 7800664

Claim:
An instrument comprising: a lens that is movable in the direction of an optical axis; an edge enhancing section which enhances an edge of image data from a signal obtained by the lens; an extracting section that extracts a component from the signal; and a photographing control section which performs controls with respect to photographing, the photographing control section comprising: a focus evaluating section that determines a focus evaluation value and a lens control section which moves the lens by a predetermined distance, the predetermined distance including a first distance and a second distance which is smaller than the first distance, and the lens being moved by either of the first distance and the second distance which is selected according to the focus evaluation value; and the photographing control section, when it has been determined that the lens is not focused even after a number of movements of the lens exceeds a predetermined number and when a most recent lens moving distance is the second distance, adjusting the degree of edge enhancement without moving the lens any further, and when it has been determined that the lens is not focused even after the number of movements of the lens exceeds the predetermined number and when the most recent lens moving distance is the first distance, selecting either of the first distance and the second distance to move the lens, wherein if the lens cannot be moved, adjusting the degree of edge enhancement.