Patent ID: 8736744

Claim:
A digital photographing apparatus comprising: an imaging device comprising a plurality of photoelectric converting units for converting image light from a subject into an electric signal to generate an image signal; an imaging device control unit for generating a timing signal and controlling such that horizontal image signals are sequentially read among the image signals in synchronization with the timing signal; a memory for storing the read horizontal image signals; an autofocus (AF) evaluation value calculation unit for calculating horizontal AF evaluation values by using the sequentially read horizontal image signals and calculating vertical AF evaluation values by sequentially reading vertical image signals from the image signals stored in the memory; and a main control unit for performing an AF operation by using the horizontal AF evaluation values or the vertical AF evaluation values, wherein a period of calculating horizontal AF evaluation values and a period of calculating vertical AF evaluation values by the AF evaluation value calculation unit do not overlap, wherein when the calculation of the horizontal AF evaluation values is completed, the vertical AF evaluation values are calculated before reading horizontal image signals of AF area of a next frame period, and wherein the calculation of horizontal AF evaluation values and the calculation of vertical AF evaluation values are completed within one frame period.