An ophthalmic photographing apparatus comprising a photographing optical system (200,300) for obtaining a regional image of an examinees eye, comprising a light source (27,61), a focusing optical element (24,63) movable in an optical-axis direction by a driving mechanism (24a,63a), and a photodetector (68,83), and a control unit (70) controlling driving of the mechanism and obtain the image based on a signal from the photodetector, characterized in that the control unit further moves the optical element in predetermined steps/continuously to obtain the image at each position, calculates frequency distribution of luminance of each of the images to detect a change characteristic of luminance values (Dmax,Dmin,Lmax,Lmin) having frequencies equal or exceeding a threshold value in the frequency distribution with respect to the optical element position, and detects a focus position of the optical element based on the change characteristics to move the optical element to a position corresponding to the detected focus position.
