Image pickup apparatus capable of keeping focus on subject even when moving direction of subject changes in time series, control method for image pickup apparatus, and storage medium

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus capable of keeping a focus on a subject even when a moving direction of the subject changes in time series is provided. The image pickup apparatus comprising at least one processor and/or circuit configured to function as following units, an image pickup unit configured to pick up a subject image formed by an image pickup optical system and generate image data, a subject detecting unit configured to detect a subject included in the image data generated by the image pickup unit and obtain a subject detection result, a focus detection unit configured to obtain a focus detection result of a focus detection area, which is set based on the subject detection result, and a control unit configured to perform a predictive calculation, which predicts a position of the subject detected by the subject detecting unit at a time after a predetermined period of time has elapsed from a focus detection time, and perform focus control of the image pickup optical system. The control unit changes at least one of a subject position prediction condition and a focus control condition according to time-series changes in the subject detection result obtained by the subject detecting unit and the focus detection result obtained by the focus detection unit.