Patent ID: 8072519

Claim:
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising: an effective pixel region comprising pixels arranged along a plurality of rows, each pixel including a photoelectric conversion element converting an incident light into an electric charge and accumulating the charge; an optical black pixel region comprising pixels arranged along a plurality of rows, each pixel including a light shielded photoelectric conversion element; a reset control unit for controlling, row by row, by advancing an address, a resetting operation of the electric charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion elements in the pixels of the effective pixel region and of the optical black pixel region; and a read out control unit for controlling, row by row, by advancing an address, a read out operation of signals from the pixels of the effective pixel region and of the optical black pixel region, wherein an electric charge accumulation time period of the pixel is a time period from an end of the reset operation of the electric charge accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element by the reset control unit until a start of the read out operation of signals from the pixel by the read out control unit, the read out control unit and the reset control unit controls such that, in the effective pixel region, a length of a time period from advancing an address to a row of pixels which the signal is not read out, until advancing the address to an adjacent row of the pixels is shorter than a length of a time period from advancing an address to a row of the pixels from which the signal is read out, until advancing the address to an adjacent row of the pixels; and the read out control unit and the reset control unit controls such that, in the optical black pixel region, a length of a time period from advancing an address to a row of the pixels until advancing an address to an adjacent row of the pixels is the same as the length of the time period from advancing an address to a row of the pixels, from which the signal is read out, until advancing an address to an adjacent row of the pixels in the effective pixel region.