Patent ID: 8237812

Claim:
An imaging apparatus, comprising: an imaging device having a plurality of pixels, storing charge generated by photoelectric conversion in each of the plurality of pixels, and outputting an imaging signal including pixel data based on the charge stored in each of the plurality of pixels; a first and second memory that store the imaging signal; an adder that adds the imaging signal for each pixel data; a controller that, in a non-light-shielded condition, controls the imaging device to output the imaging signal for every divided exposure time into which exposure time is divided by a number of division times, and accumulates, for each pixel data, the imaging signal for each divided exposure time and stores the accumulated imaging signal in the first memory, and that, in a light-shielded condition, controls the imaging device to output the imaging signal for every divided exposure time into which the exposure time is divided by the number of division times, and accumulates, for each pixel data, the imaging signal for each divided exposure time and stores the accumulated imaging signal in the second memory; and a subtractor that subtracts each pixel data of the imaging signal that is accumulated and stored in the second memory from each pixel data of the imaging signal that is accumulated and stored in the first memory one time, after accumulation during each of the number of division times has been performed, wherein a number of bits allocated to at least one of each pixel data in the first memory and each pixel data in the second memory is greater than a number of quantization bits used for analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion.