Patent ID: 8411179

Claim:
An imaging device comprising: a pixel unit that converts incident light into an electrical signal corresponding to the amount of the incident light; and a read-out unit that reads out a read-out signal from the pixel unit for a first period and a second period, wherein the read-out unit includes a clock signal generating section that generates clock signals having a frequency corresponding to the voltage of the read-out signal, a first counter section that counts the clock signals generated by the clock signal generating section, a second counter section that counts output clock signals of the first counter section, a first correction section that corrects the voltage of the read-out signal to be constant before start of counting of the first and second counter sections for the first period and stops correction of the voltage of the read-out signal after the start of counting of the first and second counting sections for the first period and during the second period, and a second correction section that corrects a frequency of the output clock signals of the first counter section to a frequency that is higher than the frequency of the output clock signals, wherein the clock signals are counted by a base 2 M counter, and the output clock signals are counted by a base 2 (N-M) /2 counter, M denoting the number of bits considered to be on the least significant bit side of the read-out signal, and N−M denoting the number of bits considered to be on the most significant bit side of the read-out signal.