Patent ID: 7609319

Claim:
A focusing position determining method to be incorporated in an automatic focusing method, comprising the steps of: moving an imaging lens along the direction of the optical axis thereof within a range of motion; outputting an output signal that represents the contrast within an image; and setting the imaging lens at a position at which a focus evaluation value that corresponds to the contrast within an image assumes a peak value; the focusing position determining method comprising the steps of: judging whether a specific low contrast subject is included in an image represented by the output signal of the imaging means; passing image data that represents the image through a first high frequency filter that only transmits high frequency components having frequencies greater than or equal to a first cutoff frequency, and obtaining the focus evaluation value based on the high frequency components transmitted by the first high frequency filter, in the case that the specific subject is not included in the image; and passing image data that represents the image through a second high frequency filter that only transmits high frequency components having frequencies greater than or equal to a second cutoff frequency, which is lower than the first cutoff frequency, and obtaining the focus evaluation value based on the high frequency components transmitted by the second high frequency filter, in the case that the specific subject is included in the image.