Patent ID: 8542314

Claim:
A camera system comprising an interchangeable lens and a camera body, the interchangeable lens comprising: a focus lens moving back and forth in an optical axis direction to change a focus status of a subject image; a driver driving the focus lens; a position detector detecting a position of the focus lens; a storage unit storing position information on the detected position of the focus lens; a position information transmission unit transmitting the position information stored in the storage unit to the camera body; and a lens controller controlling an operation of the interchangeable lens based on control signals received from the camera body, the camera body comprising: an imaging unit imaging a subject by exposure to generate image data; a timing signal transmission unit generating a timing signal at a timing correlated with a timing of the exposure of the imaging unit, and transmit the timing signal to the interchangeable lens; a drive signal transmission unit generating a drive signal for driving the focus lens and transmit the drive signal to the interchangeable lens; a position information request transmission unit generating a position information request signal for requesting a transmission of position information stored in the storage unit of the interchangeable lens and transmit the position information request signal to the interchangeable lens; and a body controller controlling an operation of the camera body, wherein the body controller controls the drive signal transmission unit to drive the focus lens in a predetermined direction along the optical axis, and performs control to transmit the timing signal to the interchangeable lens, wherein the lens controller performs control to detect a position of the focus lens in synchronization with the timing signal received from the camera body and store information on the detected position in the storage unit, wherein the lens controller, when receiving the position information request signal from the camera body, performs control to transmit the position information stored in the storage unit to the camera body, and wherein the body controller performs control so that a timing of transmission of the position information request signal does not overlap a timing of transmission of the timing signal.