Imaging apparatus and its control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9392162-B2
Application number	US-201514670130-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2015
Priority date	Mar 28, 2014
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes an imaging element with a first pixel for receiving light flux passing through a first partial pupil area in a focusing optical system and a second pixel for receiving the light flux passing through the entire pupil area in a focusing optical system. A signal generating unit of a focus detection signal generates a first signal based on a light-receiving signal of the first pixel and a second signal based on a light-receiving signal of the second pixel. A control unit performs shift processing for the first signal and the second signal in a second focus detection (S 200 ) following a first focus detection of a phase difference type (S 100 ), and then, sums the shift-processed signals to generate a shift summation signal for a plurality of shift amounts. The control unit calculates a contrast evaluation value from the magnitude of the generated shift summation signal and acquires a defocus amount to control the focus adjustment operation of the focusing optical system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:
an imaging element with a first pixel for receiving light flux passing through a partial pupil area in a focusing optical system and a second pixel for receiving the light flux passing through a pupil area that includes the partial pupil area;
a signal generating unit configured to generate a first signal based on a signal received by the first pixel and generate a second signal based on a signal received by the second pixel; and
a controlling unit configured to control focus adjustment operation of the focusing optical system by using the first signal and the second signal,
wherein the controlling unit calculates a contrast evaluation value determined based on a shift summation signal obtained by performing shift processing for the first signal and the second signal and summing the shift-processed first signal and the second signal for a plurality of shift amounts, and controls the focus adjustment operation by using a detection amount determined based on the contrast evaluation value.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controlling unit relatively shifts the first signal and the second signal in a pupil division direction according to a pupil division of the partial pupil area in the shift-processing.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the controlling unit acquires an absolute value of a value obtained by summing the first signal and the second signal corresponding to the shift amount, and calculates a value as the contrast evaluation value such that the absolute value is a maximum value in a range of focus detection.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the detection amount is determined based on a maximum value of the contrast evaluation value calculated by changing the shift amount.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the second pixel is used as a signal for image recording.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the imaging element has the first pixel for receiving light flux passing through a first partial pupil area in the focusing optical system and a third pixel for receiving light flux passing through a second partial pupil area of the focusing optical system, which is different from the first partial pupil area,
wherein the controlling unit calculates a correlation amount between the first signal and a third signal generated by the signal generating unit based on a signal received by the third pixel in a first focus detection, and controls the focus adjustment operation by using a first detection amount obtained based on the correlation amount, and controls the focus adjustment operation by using a second detection amount determined based on the contrast evaluation value in a second focus detection.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein, if the first detection amount is greater than a first threshold, the controlling unit controls the focus adjustment operation by using the first detection amount, and if the first detection amount is less than or equal to the first threshold, the controlling unit controls the focus adjustment operation by using the second detection amount, and continues the focus adjustment operation until the second detection amount is less than or equal to a second threshold.

8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 7 ,
wherein the second threshold is less than the first threshold.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the controlling unit executes parallel processing of the first focus detection and the second focus detection, and if the second detection amount is acquired in the second focus detection, sets the second detection amount as a third detection amount, and if the second detection amount is not acquired in the second focus detection, sets the first detection amount as the third detection amount to control the focus adjustment operation by using the third detection amount.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 9 ,
wherein the controlling unit continues the parallel processing of the first focus detection and the second focus detection until the third detection amount is less than or equal to a third threshold.

11. A control method to be executed by an imaging apparatus that includes an imaging element with a first pixel for receiving light flux passing through a partial pupil area in a focusing optical system and a second pixel for receiving the light flux passing through a pupil area which includes the partial pupil area, and a signal generating unit configured to generate a first signal based on a signal received by the first pixel and generate a second signal based on a signal received by the second pixel, and a controlling unit configured to control focus adjustment operation of the focusing optical system by using the first signal and the second signal, the method comprising:
generating a plurality of shift summation signals acquired by performing shift processing for the first signal and the second signal, and summing the shift processed first signal and the second signal for a plurality of shift amounts;
respectively calculating each contrast evaluation value from magnitude of the plurality of the shift summation signals and determining a detection amount based on the contrast evaluation value; and
controlling the focus adjustment operation by using the detection amount.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Tamaki Yoshihito

Classifications

• H04N25/134

  based on three different wavelength filter elements · CPC title

• H04N23/843

  Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values · CPC title

• H04N25/704

  Pixels specially adapted for focusing, e.g. phase difference pixel sets · CPC title

• H04N23/672

  based on the phase difference signals · CPC title

• H04N23/673 Primary

  based on contrast or high frequency components of image signals, e.g. hill climbing method · CPC title