Patent ID: 7480000

Claim:
An image-taking apparatus, comprising: a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements two-dimensionally arranged; a color filter array having color filters in a plurality of colors two-dimensionally arranged correspondingly to each photoelectric conversion element; a first vertical transfer route, provided between rows of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a row direction, for transferring signal charges stored on an adjacent photoelectric conversion element in a vertical direction along the row direction, and a second vertical transfer route for transferring the signal charges in a reverse direction to the first vertical transfer route; a first horizontal transfer route, connected to final downside stages of the first and second vertical transfer routes, for transferring the signal charges sent from one of the first and second vertical transfer routes in a horizontal direction along the line direction of the arrangement; a second horizontal transfer route, connected to final upside stages of the first and second vertical transfer routes, for transferring the signal charges sent from the vertical transfer route other than the one for sending the signal charges to the first horizontal transfer route, in a horizontal direction along the line direction; a first signal output device which converts the signal charges horizontally transferred by the first horizontal transfer route to image-taking signals and outputting converted image-taking signals; a second signal output device which converts the signal charges horizontally transferred by the second horizontal transfer route to the image-taking signals and outputting converted image-taking signals; a vertical transfer control device which controls the transfer of the signal charges on the first and second vertical transfer routes such that the signal charges corresponding to one of the plurality of colors color-separated by the color filters are transferred to one of the first and second horizontal transfer routes and the signal charges corresponding to the other colors in the plurality of colors are transferred to the other horizontal transfer route; and a gain setting device which sets amplification gains of the first and second signal output devices, wherein the vertical transfer control device transfers the signal charges corresponding to a color of relatively low sensitivity out of the colors constituting the color filter array to the horizontal transfer route connected to an output device in the first and second signal output devices having an output gain which is set relatively high, and transfers the signal charges corresponding to a color of relatively high sensitivity out of the colors constituting the color filter array to the horizontal transfer route connected to an output device in the first and second signal output devices having an output gain which is set relatively low.