Patent ID: 7508426

Claim:
An image pickup device realizing a zoom function by enlarging a portion of an image picked up with a solid-state imaging device comprising: a zoom ratio accepting unit configured to accept an input with a zoom ratio of N (N·1); a computing unit configured to compute, based on a number of horizontal lines in an unnecessary area in a image surface corresponding to said zoom ratio N from said zoom ratio accepting unit as well as on a transfer frequency when transferring signal charges for said horizontal lines at a high speed, a period of time required for high speed transferring pixel signals for said horizontal lines, wherein the transfer frequency in the high speed transfer is kept constant regardless of the zoom ratio N; a timing signal generating unit configured to generate timing for driving the solid-state imaging device so that signal charges for the horizontal lines included in a required area for said zoom ratio of N among the horizontal lines on an acceptance surface of said solid-state imaging device are intermittently transferred once for N horizontal scan periods within a vertical effective period and signal charges for the horizontal lines included in an upper unnecessary area corresponding to an section above the image surface from the necessary area are transferred at a high speed just before the vertical effective period, wherein said timing signal generating unit generates timing for starting high speed transfer based on a result of computing by said computing unit.