Patent ID: 7945151

Claim:
A focus control method that carries out focusing control by sensing a plurality of images of an object while moving a position of a focusing lens and determining in-focus positions of auto focusing areas that are located at a plurality of positions, comprising: a first acquisition step of acquiring read times at which image signals of the respective auto focusing areas are read; a second acquisition step of acquiring a focusing lens position and a time at which the focusing lens position is acquired; a position calculation step of determining focusing lens positions at the read times of the image signals of the respective auto focusing areas based on the read times of the respective auto focusing areas that are acquired in said first acquisition step and the focusing lens position and time that are acquired in said second acquisition step; an evaluation value calculation step of calculating evaluation values that represent degrees of focused states of the respective auto focusing areas based on the image signals of the respective auto focusing areas; and an in-focus position calculation step of calculating an in-focus position of the focusing lens based on the focusing lens positions that are determined in said position calculation step and the evaluation values of the respective auto focusing areas that are calculated in said evaluation value calculation step.