Patent ID: 7702231

Claim:
An autofocus control apparatus comprising: a solid-state electronic imaging device that images a subject and outputs image data representing a subject image formed by an imaging lens that is provided ahead of a light receiving surface of the solid-state electronic imaging device and is movable along its optical axis; a first control device that controls said solid-state electronic imaging device so as to image the subject while the imaging lens is being moved within a focusing range, in response to a pre-imaging command and output pre-image data representing the subject image; a pre-focusing evaluated value calculating device that calculates a pre-focusing evaluated value from the pre-image data outputted from the solid-state electronic imaging device at every position during movement of the imaging lens; an object image detection device that detects an image portion including the whole or a part of an object in a pre-image represented by the pre-image data outputted from said solid-state electronic imaging device; an object image pre-focusing evaluated value calculating device that images the subject while the imaging lens is being moved in a range, which range is a range the imaging lens is moved when the object image was detected by said object image detection device and the pre-focusing evaluated value calculated by said pre-focusing evaluated value calculating device is more than a threshold value, and calculates a focusing evaluated value of an object image portion detected by said object image detection device from the image data representing the image subject at every position of the imaging lens; and a position control device that controls the position of said imaging lens so as to move to a focusing position on the basis of the object image focusing evaluated value calculated by said object image focusing evaluated value calculating device.