Patent ID: 8339495

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup apparatus comprising: a plurality of pixels configured to convert incident light into analog electric signals and to output the analog electric signals, the plurality of pixels being arranged in rows and columns; a plurality of analog-to-digital converters configured to convert the analog electric signals from the plurality of pixels into digital signals and to output the digital signals, each of the plurality of analog-to-digital converters being respectively provided for a different column of the plurality of pixels, and each of the plurality of analog-to-digital converters including an analog memory configured to hold an analog electric signal; a plurality of first digital memories configured to hold the digital signals converted by the plurality of analog-to-digital converters; a plurality of second digital memories configured to hold the digital signals that are held in and output from the plurality of first digital memories; and a scanning circuit configured to control a timing for outputting the digital signals from the plurality of second digital memories, wherein the solid-state image pickup apparatus is configured to sequentially convert the analog electric signals into digital signals for the plurality of rows of pixels; and wherein a timing for outputting the digital signals derived from a row of the pixels held in the plurality of first digital memories, and a timing for holding the analog electric signals derived from a subsequent row of the pixels in the analog memories are different from each other by at least one data clock period of the scanning circuit.