Surveying intstrument, surveying instrument having AF function, surveying instrument having PF mechanism, and surveying instrument having multiple-focus function

Abstract

A surveying instrument having an AF apparatus, provided with a focusing lens and a collimation telescope, includes a focus detector for detecting a focus state through the collimation telescope, and a controller for moving the focusing lens of the collimation telescope to a focal position, based on the focus state detected by the focus detector. The surveying instrument includes a single focus mode at which only one detection of the output of the focus detector and only one control operation of the controller based on the detected output are carried out, and a continuous focus mode at which a plurality of detections of the output of the focus detector and a plurality of control operations of the controller based on the detected outputs are sequentially carried out, the single focus mode and the continuous mode being selectively performed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.