Patent ID: 8203642

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging device configured to receive light from an object through an imaging lens at a predetermined imaging plane and to perform photoelectric conversion of an object image to generate a captured image; phase-difference detecting means for receiving the light from the object and generating a phase-difference detection signal corresponding to a focus level of the object image; evaluation-value calculating means for calculating a predetermined evaluation value corresponding to a contrast of the object image on the basis of the captured image; determining means for selecting an optimum AF method from among a plurality of AF methods in which the phase-difference detection signal obtained by the phase-difference detecting means and the predetermined evaluation value based on the captured image are used selectively or in combination, the optimum AF method being selected in accordance with image-capturing conditions of the object; and drive control means for performing an AF operation by driving the imaging lens using the selected optimum AF method, wherein the drive control means drives the imaging lens using an AF method in which only one of the phase-difference detection signal and the predetermined evaluation value is used to complete the AF operation when only one of a phase-difference AF method and a contrast AF method is selected as the optimum AF method, wherein the determining means determines that an AF method using the predetermined evaluation value is the optimum AF method either when a focus level detected using a result of comparison between a low-frequency contrast component and a high-frequency contrast component of the captured image is larger than a first predetermined level or when a difference between a current lens position and a lens position determined as an in-focus lens position by the phase-difference detection signal is smaller than a predetermined threshold and when a focus level detected using a result of comparison between a low-frequency contrast component and a high-frequency contrast component of the captured image is smaller than a predetermined level.