Patent ID: 8147064

Claim:
A fundus camera comprising: a fundus illuminating optical system configured to illuminate a fundus of a subject's eye; a fundus photographing optical system including a focusing lens driven to bring the fundus into focus; a focusing lens drive unit configured to drive the focusing lens; a fundus image capturing unit arranged in a conjugate relationship with the fundus in the fundus photographing optical system; a display monitor configured to display a fundus image captured by the fundus image capturing unit; a focus state detecting unit configured to detect an AF evaluation value representing a degree of a focus state based on an output signal from the fundus image capturing unit; and a lens drive control unit configured to drive the focusing lens based on the AF evaluation value detected by the focus state detecting unit, wherein the focus state detecting unit includes a fundus position detecting unit configured to detect a specific region of the fundus image by using a regional pattern inherent in a fundus region based on output from the fundus image capturing unit, and a focus detection range determining unit configured to determine a focus detection range based on output of the fundus position detecting unit, and the focus state detecting unit calculates the AF evaluation value in the focus detection range determined by the focus detection range determining unit.