Patent ID: 7514663

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an area sensor in which a plurality of pixels are arranged in a matrix, the pixels including conversion elements for converting incident radiation or light into electric charge; a drive circuit unit for supplying a drive signal to a plurality of drive wirings arranged in a column direction, wherein each of the drive wirings is connected commonly to a plurality of pixels arranged in a row direction; a read out circuit unit for reading out signals from the pixels through a plurality of signal wirings arranged in the row direction, wherein each of the signal wirings is connected commonly to the plurality of pixels arranged in the column direction; and a processing unit processing signals transferred from the read out circuit unit, wherein N is an integer of one or more, M is an integer of two or more and always greater than N, the drive circuit unit and the read out circuit unit perform a first operation in which signals are simultaneously read out from N pixels in a first area of the area sensor and a second operation in which signals are simultaneously read out from M pixels in a second area except the first area of the area sensor, the first and the second read out operations are continuously performed in a period while signals for one frame are read out from pixels of the area sensor, and a first signal obtained by the first read out operation and a second signal obtained by the second read out operation are continuously transferred from the read out circuit unit to the processing unit.