Patent ID: 8305472

Claim:
An image capturing system including an image sensor configured to capture an optical image of an object, which image is formed by an optical system and is point symmetrical to the object, the image capturing system comprising: a housing having an upper surface and a lower surface; a mechanical shutter which is arranged to control an end of exposure of said image sensor; and an image displaying unit, wherein in a first operation mode, a charge accumulation operation of the pixels of each row of said image sensor starts at a time at which a reset operation of the pixels of each row ends, and ends at a time at which said mechanical shutter sets the pixels of each row to a light-shielded state, wherein the reset operation of the pixels of each row of said image sensor is performed by sequentially selecting rows in a first direction from the upper surface to the lower surface, and said mechanical shutter is set to a state in which said image sensor is exposed to light, before the starting of the charge accumulation operation, wherein said mechanical shutter sequentially ends exposure of the pixels of each row of said image sensor in the first direction, wherein a readout operation of the pixels of each row of said image sensor starts after said mechanical shutter sets the pixels of a lowermost row of said image sensor in the light-shielded state, the readout operation being performed while selecting rows sequentially in a second direction that is the reverse of the first direction, wherein said image displaying unit sequentially displays rows that form an image of an object, in a non-inverted state, in accordance with the signals sequentially output from said image sensor through the sequential selection of the rows in the second direction, wherein said image sensor comprises a vertical scanning unit adapted to scan the pixels of each row, wherein the reset operation of the pixels of each row of the image sensor is performed by causing said vertical scanning unit to select rows sequentially in the first direction and supplying a reset signal, and wherein the readout operation of the pixels of each row of said image sensor is performed by causing said vertical scanning unit to select rows sequentially in the second direction and supplying a readout signal, wherein said mechanical shutter sets the pixels of an uppermost row of said image sensor in the light-shielded state before the reset operation of the pixels of the lowermost row of said image sensor is performed, wherein there is a delay between said mechanical shutter setting the pixels of the lowermost row of said image sensor in the light-shielded state, and the readout operation being performed, and wherein a time between the reset operation of the pixels of a row and the readout operation of the pixels of that row is greater for the uppermost row of said image sensor than for the lowermost row of said image sensor.