Patent ID: 7973852

Claim:
An auto-focus apparatus comprising: an evaluation value calculator configured to periodically calculate evaluation values using high frequency components of image signals in a specific region of a subject image captured by an image capture unit; a control unit configured to output instruction values provided to a lens driver for driving a focus lens based on the evaluation values, to conduct operation to search the peak of the evaluation values while moving positions of the focus lens, to return the focus lens to the position corresponding to a point at which the relative maximum has been detected after having detected the relative maximum of the evaluation values, to obtain the evaluation values calculated by the evaluation value calculator, and to determine whether or not the evaluation value satisfies a prescribed condition; and a storage configured to store a plurality of determination results determined by the control unit, wherein the control unit determines whether or not the auto-focus apparatus includes abnormal portions based on the plurality of the determination results stored in the storage.