Patent ID: 7760257

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus comprising: an image sensor which comprises a plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels arranged in a two-dimensional matrix in vertical and horizontal directions, and a common output unit which is commonly provided to the plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels to sequentially output signals from the plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels; a read unit adapted to read out the signals from said image sensor by dividing the signals of the plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels into m fields, m is a natural number not less than 3; a mode setting unit adapted to set a first read mode or a second read mode, wherein the first read mode is for reading out the signals for the m fields from said image sensor, and the second read mode is for reading out the signals for n fields of the m fields from said image sensor, n is a natural number that meets 2≦n<m; a vertical addition unit adapted to simultaneously read out the signals of one field of the n fields and the signals of another field other than the n fields, and to add the read out signals of the one field and the read out signals of the another field fields other than n fields in the vertical direction, when the second read mode is set by said mode setting unit; and a horizontal addition unit adapted to add the signals added by said vertical addition unit in the horizontal direction.