Patent ID: 7079184

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup area having a plurality of pixels which are arranged in a horizontal and a vertical direction and which generate charges corresponding to optical signals; a plurality of vertical charge transfer devices which are provided for respective columns of pixels arranged in the vertical direction and which receive the charges generated by said pixels to transfer the charges in the vertical direction; a horizontal charge transfer device that receives the charges transferred from said plurality of vertical charge transfer devices to transfer the charges in the horizontal direction; and a driving circuit having the following readout modes on the assumption that twelve horizontal pixel rows continuous in the vertical direction are formed as one set, the twelve horizontal pixel rows being a first horizontal pixel row, a second horizontal pixel row, a third horizontal pixel row, a fourth horizontal pixel row, a fifth horizontal pixel row, a sixth horizontal pixel row, a seventh horizontal pixel row, an eighth horizontal pixel row, a ninth horizontal pixel row, a tenth horizontal pixel row, an eleventh horizontal pixel row and a twelfth horizontal pixel row, a first readout mode for selectively reading out charges of said first horizontal pixel row, said fourth horizontal pixel row, said seventh horizontal pixel row and said tenth horizontal pixel row to said vertical charge transfer devices; a second readout mode for selectively reading out charges of said second horizontal pixel row, said fifth horizontal pixel row, said eighth horizontal pixel row and said eleventh horizontal pixel row to said vertical charge transfer devices; a third readout mode for selectively reading out charges of said third horizontal pixel row, said sixth horizontal pixel row, said ninth horizontal pixel row and said twelfth horizontal pixel row to said vertical charge transfer devices; a fourth readout mode for selectively reading out charges of said first horizontal pixel row and said tenth horizontal pixel row to said vertical charge transfer devices; and a fifth readout mode for selectively reading out charges of said fifth horizontal pixel row and said eighth horizontal pixel row to said vertical charge transfer devices.