Patent ID: 8711273

Claim:
A focusing apparatus comprising: a focus lens; an imaging device that captures image light passing through the focus lens and generates an image signal; a focus evaluation value calculator that receives the image signal as input from the imaging device and calculates a focus evaluation value of the received image light; a manipulation unit that generates a user input signal to thereby select one of auto focusing (AF) mode and focus aid information mode; a focus area setting unit that sets a focus area in a received image based on the selected focus mode, wherein the focus area is automatically determined in the AF mode, and the focus area may either be determined based on user input or may be set based on previously stored information in the focus aid information mode; an auto focusing control unit that, when the AF mode is selected, performs focusing by automatically adjusting a position of the focus lens according to a first focus evaluation value that is calculated from a first focus area in a first received image; an information deriving unit that, when the focus aid information mode is selected, derives focus aid (FA) information corresponding to a second focus evaluation value that is calculated from a second focus area in a second received image in response to user input resulting from the user manually adjusting the position of the focus lens; a display unit that, when the focus aid information mode is selected, displays the FA information; and a storage unit that stores at least one of first focus area information about the first focus area and second focus area information about the second focus area, wherein when a focus mode is changed from the AF mode to the focus aid information mode, the focus area setting unit sets the second focus area based on the first focus area, wherein the second focus area may be further changed based on user input, and wherein, when the focus mode is changed from the focus aid information mode to the AF mode, the focus area setting unit sets a third focus area in a third received image based on one of the first focus area information and the second focus area information stored during a previous focusing.