Patent ID: 7405762

Claim:
A camera acquiring an image of a subject using an electronic image pickup element, the camera comprising: a photographing lens which guides a luminous flux from the subject to the electronic image pickup element; a driving mechanism which drives a focusing lens included in the photographing lens; focus detecting circuit based on a phase difference detecting system to detect a focus state of the focusing lens for a particular area including a central part of a photographing composition; a light source which radiates the subject with an illumination light; and a CPU that calculates a focus position of the focusing lens on the basis of a detection result from the focus detecting circuit to drivingly control the driving mechanism, wherein if the CPU determines that the output from the focus detecting circuit is not suitable for the focusing operation although the light source radiates the subject with the illumination light, and that a quantity of a part of the illumination light reflected by the subject is greater than a predetermined value, the CPU adjusts the focus state of the photographing lens by a mount-climbing system using an image signal, in a lower part of the photographing composition excluding the area for which the focus state is detected by the focus detecting circuit, of all image signals outputted by the electronic image pickup element.