Patent ID: 7804540

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: a plurality of pixels which generate charge signals, wherein the plurality of pixels are arranged in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction to form a plurality of horizontal pixel lines; a plurality of vertical charge transfer elements which transfers the charge signals generated by the plurality of pixels in the vertical direction; a horizontal charge transfer element which transfers the charge signals transferred by said plurality of vertical charge transfer elements, in the horizontal direction; and a mode setting unit adapted to set a first image pickup mode and a second image pickup mode of the image pickup apparatus, wherein in said first image pickup mode, charge signals of a plurality of fields are read out, and the charge signals of predetermined lines of the plurality of horizontal pixel lines are read out in each field, each field in the first image pickup mode comprising a set of charge signals read from a predetermined plurality of horizontal pixel lines that are read out at the same time, and wherein in said second image pickup mode, the charge signals from fewer than all of the horizontal pixel lines of one of the fields defined in said first image pickup mode are read out at the same time, the charge signals from fewer that all of the horizontal pixel lines of another one of the fields defined in said first image pickup mode are read out at the same time, and the read-out charge signals from fewer than all of the horizontal pixel lines of the one of the fields defined in said first image pickup mode and the read-out the charge signals from fewer than all of the horizontal pixel lines of the another one of the fields defined in said first image pickup mode are added together to form an image of one frame.