Patent ID: 7126635

Claim:
A video camera apparatus for capturing video and still images as frames, the apparatus comprising: a solid image sensor having an electronic shutter for outputting an image sensing signal in a progressive scan mode, said solid image sensor including a plurality of pixel sensors configured to process charges accumulated on the pixel sensors as the image sensing signal, wherein, in said progressive scan mode, the charges accumulated and stored for a first field of a particular frame are discharged before the charges accumulated for a second field of the particular frame are stored, and wherein the stored charges of the second field are read out in next two fields of a subsequent frame; drive control means for controlling the electronic shutter of the solid image sensor at a field cycle of a standard television system used as a basic cycle, thereby to output the image sensing signal from the solid image sensor in the progressive scan mode; encoding means for encoding the image sensing signal outputted from the solid image sensor; and memory means for recording the image sensing signal encoded by said encoding means, wherein, when an image is captured for generating a still image that is recorded on said memory means, the progressive scan mode is forcedly set.