Lens control apparatus and control method for tracking moving object

A lens control apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to perform operations of following units:

• a defocus amount detection unit configured to detect a defocus amount being a difference between an image formation position of an imaging lens and an image plane position of the imaging lens where the imaging lens performs an image capturing operation;
• a calculation unit configured to calculate an image plane position corresponding to an object from the defocus amount detected by the defocus amount detection unit and the image formation position of the imaging lens;
• a storage unit configured to store a plurality of detection times when the defocus amount detection unit detects the defocus amount and a plurality of previous image plane positions of the object calculated by the calculation unit;
• an identification unit configured to, using a model of a previous image plane position corresponding to the object and the image plane position corresponding to the object calculated by the calculation unit, identify a model of the image plane position corresponding to the object by a recursive identification method;
• a first prediction unit configured to, using the model of the image plane position corresponding to the object identified by the identification unit, predict the future image plane position corresponding to the object;
• and
• a determination unit configured to, in a case where an identification degree of the model of the image plane position corresponding to the object identified by the identification unit is less than a first threshold, determine that the future image plane position corresponding to the object predicted by the first prediction unit is to be used.