Patent ID: 8717451

Claim:
A camera system comprising a camera body and an interchangeable lens, wherein the camera body comprises: an imaging unit; a synchronizing signal generator that generates a synchronizing signal; a body controller that controls the camera body and generates a command to control the interchangeable lens; and a sending unit that sends the synchronizing signal and the command, the sending unit sends the synchronizing signal at a timing correlated with an exposure timing of the imaging unit, the body controller performs control to send the interchangeable lens a command to set the interchangeable lens to a synchronous mode in which operation of the interchangeable lens is controlled in synchronization with the synchronizing signal generated in the camera body, and a command to set the interchangeable lens to an asynchronous mode in which the operation of the interchangeable lens is controlled in synchronization with a synchronizing signal generated in the interchangeable lens, and the interchangeable lens comprises: an optical system; a receiving unit that receives a synchronizing signal and a command which are sent from the camera body; and a lens controller that controls the operation of the interchangeable lens, the lens controller controls the operation of the optical system in synchronization with the synchronizing signal received from the camera body in the synchronous mode, or the synchronizing signal generated in the interchangeable lens in the asynchronous mode, according to the command received from the camera body, the synchronizing signal generated in the camera body is generated based on an exposure timing of the imaging unit in the camera body, the synchronizing signal generated in the camera body is sent from the camera body to the interchangeable lens, and the synchronizing signal generated in the camera body is used for driving the optical system in the interchangeable lens in the synchronous mode.