Patent ID: 7609317

Claim:
An electronic camera comprising: an image sensor for exposing a plurality of two-dimensionally arranged photoelectric conversion elements to light by progressive scanning and generating a video signal by reading an electric signal from the photoelectric conversion elements; a lens section having a focusing lens for converging an image of an object, the focusing lens adapted to adjust the focusing position of the object and a movement control section for moving the focusing lens to a near side and a far side; a wobbling control section for generating a wobbling control signal for causing the focusing lens to do a wobbling operation of repeating a series of operations including: a near side drive operation of driving the focusing lens to move to the near side by a predetermined distance; a near side stop operation of stopping the focusing lens at the near side for a predetermined period of time after the near side drive operation; a far side drive operation of driving the focusing lens to move to the far side by a predetermined distance after the near side stop operation; and a far side stop operation of stopping the focusing lens at the far side for a predetermined period of time after the far side drive operation at every 2×n (n being a natural number) field periods; a focus value computing section for generating a focus value to indicate the degree of focus of the image according to the video signal of a predetermined range in the image; an in focus direction determining section for computing a quantity of change in the focus value during the wobbling operation and determining a focusing direction for focusing the focusing lens based on the quantity of change; and a drive section for driving the focusing lens to move and become in focus based on the focus value and the focusing direction and driving the movement control section based on the wobbling control signal; the wobbling control section being adapted to generate the wobbling control signal for synchronizing exposure to light of a central pixel of the predetermined range in the image with the central timing of the near side stop operation and the central timing of the far side stop operation, the synchronization being based on a time period from a vertical synchronization signal to a timing of reading a first pixel and a timing of reading a final pixel of the predetermined range in the image.