Patent ID: 8866935

Claim:
A drive unit which is capable of operating in a preset mode in which a zooming operation of an imaging optical system to a predetermined zoom position is performed and, at the same time, driving a rotation of the imaging optical system wherein said rotation includes at least one of panning and tilting of the imaging optical system to a predetermined rotational position, the drive unit comprising a control unit configured to perform the driving of the imaging optical system in the preset mode in accordance with designated predetermined rotational and zoom positions and with rotational and zoom positions of the imaging optical system at the start of the preset mode, wherein the control unit is further configured so that, in a case of operating in the preset mode, if the amount of driving to rotate the imaging optical system is smaller than a threshold value based on the imaging field angle of the imaging optical system, the control unit controls the driving to rotate the imaging optical system at a speed based on the change rate per unit time of the imaging field angle of the zoom of the imaging optical system and, if the amount of driving to rotate of the imaging optical system is greater than the threshold value, the control unit controls the driving to rotate the imaging optical system at a speed not based on the change rate per unit time of imaging field angle of the imaging optical system.