Patent ID: 7199351

Claim:
A solid state image sensing apparatus comprising: a solid state image pickup device comprising: a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type; a well formed in said semiconductor substrate, the well having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type; a number of charge accumulation regions formed in the well, the charge accumulation region having the first conductivity type and a photodiode being constituted of the charge accumulation region and the well; and an overflow drain terminal electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate and used for controlling a potential barrier to be formed by the well by applying a bias voltage to the semiconductor substrate; an amplifier for amplifying an output from said solid state image pickup device; a sensitivity setter for setting a photographic sensitivity in a still mode, from among a plurality of sensitivities; and an output level controller for changing an amount of charge capable of being accumulated in the charge accumulation region in the still mode by changing the bias voltage to be applied to the overflow drain terminal in the still mode in accordance with a set sensitivity.