Patent ID: 8289423

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a pixel unit in which pixels, each of which converts light into a pixel signal and accumulates the pixel signal in accordance with a light exposure period, are arranged in a predetermined color layout and first-color pixel horizontal rows containing first-color pixels and second-color pixel horizontal rows containing second-color pixels are alternately arranged in a vertical row direction; readout units that select n (nâ‰§2) single-color pixel signals from the first-color or second-color pixels in the first-color or second-color pixel horizontal rows, perform 1/n thinning-out on the selected n pixel signals to reduce the number of pixel signals to 1/n, and read the resultant pixel signal for each of the colors; and n column processing units, one of n column processing units being activated to perform column processing on the pixel signals having undergone the 1/n thinning-out, wherein only one of the n column processing units works not only as a processing unit that performs column processing on the one first-color pixel signal read by the readout units from the n first-color pixel signals but also as a processing unit that performs column processing on the one second-color pixel signal read by the readout units from the n second-color pixel signals.