Apparatus, method, and storage medium for controlling focus point adjustment operation

A method of controlling focal point adjustment operation of an imaging optical system, the method comprising:

• calculating a focal point evaluation value for each of images captured successively by the imaging optical system;
• determining whether an amount of change in the calculated focal point evaluation value with respect to a reference value is greater than or equal to a first threshold;
• counting a number of times the amount of change in the focal point evaluation value is determined to be greater than or equal to the first threshold;
• counting a number of frames;
• storing the number of times wherein the number of times is reset in a case where the number of frames counted by the second count unit is greater than or equal to a second threshold;
• and
• controlling the imaging optical system so that the focal point adjustment operation is executed in a case where the number of times is greater than or equal to a third threshold before the number of frames is greater than or equal to the second threshold.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute an image processing method comprising:

• calculating a focal point evaluation value for each of images captured successively by the imaging optical system;
• determining whether an amount of change in the calculated focal point evaluation value with respect to a reference value is greater than or equal to a first threshold;
• counting a number of times the amount of change in the focal point evaluation value is determined to be greater than or equal to the first threshold;
• counting a number of frames;
• storing the number of times wherein the number of times is reset in a case where the number of frames counted by the second count unit is greater than or equal to a second threshold;
• and
• controlling the focal point adjustment operation of the imaging optical system so that the focal point adjustment operation is executed in a case where the number of times is greater than or equal to a third threshold before the number of frames is greater than or equal to the second threshold.