Patent ID: 7800670

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, comprising: a solid-state image pickup device for photoelectrically converting light incoming to a light receiving face thereof to produce charge such that the charge is cumulatively stored in response to a charge storage time period set in advance and outputting a detection signal corresponding to the stored charge; and a control section for setting the charge storage time period, wherein said light receiving face of said solid-state image pickup device have an image pickup region from which a detection signal corresponding to an image of an image pickup subject formed from the light incoming to said light receiving face is outputted as an image pickup signal and a light amount detection region from which a detection signal corresponding to the amount of the light incoming to said light receiving face is outputted as a light amount detection signal, wherein the charge storage time period includes a charge storage time period of said image pickup region and a light amount detection charge storage time period which is a charge storage time period of said light amount detection region, wherein said control section setting the image pickup charge storage time period and the light amount detection charge storage time period independently of each other, and wherein the light amount detection charge storage time period starts at a fixed interval after the charge storage time period of said image pick-up region.