Patent ID: 7880802

Claim:
An imaging device that captures an image of a subject via its optical system including a lens, the imaging device comprising: an imaging direction adjustment unit configured to adjust an imaging direction of the optical system; a focus regulation unit configured to regulate a characteristic value of the optical system to adjust a focus of the optical system within a whole range defined between a close position and a far position; a preset value storage unit configured to store the adjusted imaging direction and the characteristic value in a focused state in the imaging direction, as preset values; a preset operation unit configured to read out the stored preset values at a predetermined timing, and adjust the imaging direction and regulate the characteristic value based on the read-out preset values; a restriction unit configured to restrict an adjustable range of the characteristic value to a specific range comprising only a portion of said whole range, defined between the characteristic value stored as the preset value and a characteristic value corresponding to the focus in the close position; and an auto-focusing control unit configured to analyze the image of the subject captured by the optical system while changing the regulated characteristic value in the restricted adjustable range, so as to automatically focus the optical system on the subject.