Patent ID: 8643073

Claim:
A solid state imaging device, comprising: a plurality of pixels disposed two-dimensionally including effective pixels generating a signal corresponding to incident light and optical black pixels generating a signal at a black standard level; a plurality of signal lines provided corresponding to each column of the pixels and supplied with output signals of the pixels; a plurality of transistors provided corresponding to the respective signal lines and limiting a potential of the signal lines based on a gate potential; and a gate potential providing unit providing a first potential to a gate of one of the transistors corresponding to at least one pixel column formed of the optical black pixels when reading a noise level from the pixels corresponding to the transistors and when reading a data level from the pixels corresponding to the transistors, wherein the gate potential providing unit provides the first potential to gates of the transistors corresponding to pixel columns excluding the at least one pixel column when reading a noise level from the pixels corresponding to the transistors and provides a second potential when reading a data level from the pixels corresponding to the transistors at least in a predetermined operating mode.