Patent ID: 7250969

Claim:
A defective pixel compensation system, comprising: a photoelectric converter having a two-dimensional array of pixels formed on an image pick-up area and arranged in horizontal and vertical line directions; a read-out circuit configured to read out photoelectric conversion outputs from given pixels which, when set in a first read-out mode, fully reads out photoelectric conversion outputs of all pixels in the photoelectric converter, and when set in a second read-out mode, reads out photoelectric conversion outputs of pixels in one of the horizontal and vertical line directions intermittently and reads out photoelectric conversion outputs of all pixels in the other one of the horizontal and vertical line directions; and a defective pixel compensation portion configured such that when the read-out circuit is set in the first read-out mode for reading out photoelectric conversion outputs, the compensation portion executes a predetermined defective pixel compensation process for defective pixel outputs on the basis of the photoelectric conversion outputs of pixels including pixels adjacent to a defective pixel in both the horizontal and vertical line directions, and when the read-out portion is set in the second read-out mode for reading out photoelectric conversion outputs of selected and limited pixels, the compensation circuit executes a predetermined defective pixel compensation process for defective pixel outputs on the basis of photoelectric conversion outputs of only two pixels which are adjacent to the defective pixel and lie in the other one of the line directions, when the read-out circuit reads out the photoelectric conversion outputs of the selected and limited pixels in the second read-out mode.