Camera comprising an automatic selection of an autofocus area

摘要

A camera has a face detecting section (24,39c), a focusing section (19), and a controlling section. The face detecting section (24,39c) detects a face area in a shooting image plane. The focusing section (19) calculates a defocus amount based on a relative distance of a pair of images of a light beam that has passed through a shooting lens in each of a plurality of optional areas in the shooting image plane. The controlling section designates a focusing area among the optional areas based on an output of the face detecting section and performs a focusing operation of the shooting lens based on the defocus amount in the focusing area.