Patent ID: 7319486

Claim:
A high speed video camera for taking video of high speed phenomena, comprising: an image sensor composed of a number of light sensor circuits each representing a unit pixel and capable of producing in a photoelectric converting element a sensor current proportional to a quantity of light falling thereon and converting the current into a voltage signal by a MOS type transistor with a logarithmic output characteristic in a weak inverse state and including a means for removing a charge accumulated in a parasitic capacitor of the photoelectric converting element by changing a drain voltage of the transistor to a value lower than a normal value for a specified period to initialize each pixel before detecting a light signal; a memory for storing therein image data output from the image sensor at a high speed; a compensating circuit for compensating for variations in respective pixel signals from the image sensor by using compensation values predetermined for output characteristics of the respective pixels based on the image data read from the memory; and a display device for displaying an image based on the compensated image data.