Patent ID: 8369699

Claim:
A focus detection apparatus comprising: an image pickup element configured to take an object image incident via a photographic optical system; an object recognition part configured to compare an image obtained by the image pickup element with an image stored previously to detect a position of a main object based on the image obtained by the image pickup element; a focus detection part configured to detect an in-focus state of a plurality of positions in a screen of the image pickup element; a reliability determination part configured to determine a reliability of a detection result of the in-focus state of the plurality of positions including the position of the main object in the screen of the image pickup element; a determination part configured to determine a position where the reliability of the detection result of the in-focus state is the highest of the plurality of positions based on a determination result of the reliability determination part; and a selector configured to select one of the detection result of the in-focus state of the position of the main object and the detection result of the in-focus state of the position where the reliability of the detection result of the in-focus state is determined to be the highest to be used for performing a focusing of the photographic optical system.