A sample image display method and an image shift sensitivity measuring method to be executed in a charged particle beam apparatus are provided for accurately correcting an image drift in any observing and analyzing condition such as an accelerating voltage, a working distance or a raster rotation. When obtaining a reference image used for detecting a drift, the process is executed to obtain an image having the different image shift amount from that of the reference image at a time and to occasionally measure an image shift sensitivity. Then, the process is executed to automatically register this reference image and the image shift sensitivity and to detect a drift amount and control an image shift (correct a drift) according to the registered conditions when correcting the drift.