Patent ID: 7614559

Claim:
An apparatus for deciding an in-focus position of an imaging lens, comprising: a solid-state electronic image sensing device for sensing the image of a subject and outputting image data representing the image of the subject; an imaging lens moving device for moving an imaging lens, which has been placed in front of said solid-state electronic image sensing device, a prescribed distance along the direction of the optic axis; a focusing data output device for outputting focusing data representing degree of focus of the image of the subject formed by the imaging lens, which is at a position to which it has been moved by said imaging lens moving device; a determination device for determining whether the level of the focusing data that has been output from said focusing data output device is equal to or greater than a prescribed threshold value; a target detecting device for detecting whether the image of the subject contains a target in response to a determination by said determination device that the level of the focusing data is equal to or greater than the threshold value; a control device for controlling said imaging lens driving device, said focusing data output device, said determination device and said target detecting device so as to repeat processing for moving the imaging lens, processing for outputting the focusing data, processing for making the determination and processing for performing the detection; and an in-focus position deciding device for deciding on the position of the imaging lens as the in-focus position based upon data that corresponds to the target detected by said target detecting device.