Patent ID: 8810703

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a plurality of unit pixels each including at least a photoelectric converting section, a charge-to-voltage converting section, a charge discharging section, and one or more transfer means for transferring a charge in either a first predetermined path to the charge-to-voltage converting section or a second predetermined path to the charge discharging section: a light shielding film for shielding a surface of said plurality of unit pixels excluding at least a light receiving section of said photoelectric converting sections from light; and voltage controlling means for controlling a voltage applied to said light shielding film; wherein, transfer of the charge by one of said transfer means is controlled by (i) applying a control pulse to said light shielding film, and (ii) controlling a potential barrier having a variable height based on the control pulse applied to said light shielding film, and the voltage controlling means causes the charge to be transferred to the charge discharging section along the second predetermined path if a photodiode saturates during a readout period after an end of light exposure.