Patent ID: 8243191

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging optical system including a focus lens; an imaging element configured to image an object image focused by the imaging optical system and to generate an image indicating the object image; a lens drive device configured to move the focus lens along an optical axis direction of the imaging optical system; an evaluation value calculation device configured to set a plurality of evaluation value calculation areas different in size to each other to the image and to calculate an evaluation value of a contrast for each of the plurality of evaluation value calculation areas while moving the focus lens by the lens drive device; a point light source presence/absence determination device configured to determine a presence or absence of a point light source in a specific region of the image; an area selection device configured to select a focusing determination area for determining a focusing position of the focus lens from a plurality of the evaluation value calculation areas based on the presence or absence of the point light source; and a focusing control device configured to determine the focusing position of the focus lens based on the evaluation value in the focusing determination area and to move the focus lens to the focusing position by the lens drive device, wherein the evaluation value calculation device sets a first evaluation value calculation area and a second evaluation value calculation area larger than the first evaluation value calculation area in the image; and if the point light source presence/absence determination device determines that there is no point light source, the area selection device selects the first evaluation value calculation area, and if the point light source presence/absence determination device determines that there is a point light source, the area selection device selects the second evaluation value calculation area.