1. An imaging apparatus comprising: an image sensor that captures the optical image of an object formed by an imaging optical system and converts the optical image into the electrical still image signal; a signal processor for dividing a representation of the image signal into a plurality of areas, and for determining a color characteristic for each area of the plurality of areas, the color characteristic consisting of a hue and/or chroma saturation; an operation portion for receiving an instruction from a user; a controller for setting a preset color characteristic based on the color characteristic of at least one area of the plurality of areas in response to an operation of the operation portion; a selector for selecting at least one area of the plurality of areas for which its respective color characteristic substantially corresponds to a preset color characteristic which was previously set by the controller; an image processor including a corrector that corrects the image signal outputted by the image sensor based on the preset color characteristic; and a focus controller for determining focus parameters of the imaging apparatus only for the at least one area selected by the selector and generating a focus control signal for adjusting the image optical system based on the focus parameters.