Patent ID: 8687059

Claim:
An image taking system comprising: a lens apparatus; a camera configured to take an image using the lens apparatus; a distance calculator configured to calculate an object distance in each of a plurality of ranging areas provided in an image-taking range; a distance information generator configured to generate distance information which indicates at least one of the object distance calculated by the distance calculator or a difference between the object distances; an extractor configured to: arrange the plurality of ranging areas, so that the object distances calculated by the distance calculator that are within a first range, in order of the object distance from shortest to longest; set at least two ranging areas, where the difference of the object distances between two adjacent ranging areas is within a second range, which is smaller than the first range, to one ranging area group; set the at least two ranging areas, where the difference of the object distances between the two adjacent ranging areas is outside the second range, into separate ranging area groups; and extract one ranging area from each ranging area group; and an output image generator configured to generate an output image including a shot image generated by the camera and the distance information corresponding to the one ranging area extracted by the extractor from each ranging area group.