Image-pickup apparatus and focus control method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKazunori Ishii
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Abstract
An image-pickup apparatus is disclosed which is capable of restricting unnecessary focus control by an AF method other than the TV-AF method in the hybrid AF. The image-pickup apparatus includes a first detector which generates first information corresponding to a contrast state of a picked-up image, a second detector which detects second information differing from the first information and used for focus control, and a controller which performs focus processing that cyclically repeats first focus control using the first information and performs second focus control using the second information. In the focus processing, the controller is changed over between a state of restricting the second focus control and a state of allowing the second focus control, depending on a change amount of the contrast state.
Claims11
An image-pickup apparatus comprising:
- a first detector which generates first information corresponding to a contrast state of a picked-up image;
- a second detector which detects second information corresponding to a subject distance based on a detected shift amount between two images using a phase difference detection method;
- and
- a controller which controls a focus lens cyclically using the first information and controls the focus lens using the second information, wherein the controller moves the focus lens in a direction in which the contrast state of the picked-up image increases,
- wherein the controller controls the focus lens using the second information when a change amount of the contrast and a change amount of the subject distance exceed each threshold value respectively during a control of moving the focus lens using the first information without using the second information so that the contrast state of the picked-up image increases, and
- wherein the controller restricts the control of the focus lens using the second information when at least one of both the change amount of the contrast and the change amount of the subject distance do not exceed the each threshold value during the control of moving the focus lens using the first information without using the second information so that the contrast state of the picked-up image increases.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.