Patent ID: 7783186

Claim:
An imaging apparatus, comprising: a face detecting unit that detects a face area from an input image inputted in the imaging apparatus; and a control unit that executes a focus operation according to adjustment of a focus lens, wherein the control unit judges, on the basis of a number and sizes of the faces detected, whether, during the focus operation, a new face has appeared in a position closer to the imaging apparatus than a position of a face closest to the imaging apparatus among faces detected before the start of the focus operation and performs processing for re-executing or stopping the focus operation on the basis of a judgment result indicating that a new face has appeared in a position closer to the imaging apparatus, wherein the control unit executes processing for comparing a number of detected faces before the start of the focus operation (N 1 ) and a number of detected faces during the focus operation (N 2 ), when N 2 is larger than N 1 , executes processing for comparing a distance to the face closest to the imaging apparatus before the start of the focus operation (S 1 ) and a distance to a face closest to the imaging apparatus during the focus operation (S 2 ), and, when S 2 is smaller than S 1 , stops the focus operation and performs processing for re-executing or stopping the focus operation.