Patent ID: 7898575

Claim:
An image pickup device comprising: an image pickup element that picks up an image of an object so as to generate an image signal based on the image of the object; a plurality of image output units, each of the plurality of image output units being adapted to output the image signal; an image pickup mode setting unit that sets an image pickup mode based on at least one of an image size and a frame rate; and an output selecting unit that selects at least one image output unit from the plurality of image output units in accordance with the image pickup mode so as to enable the at least one image output unit to actually output the image signal; wherein the output selecting unit decides the number of the at least one image output unit based on a value given by N×M/D, where D is an upper limit of an available range of data transfer rate per unit time of each of the plurality of image output units, N is the image size, and M is the frame rate.