Patent ID: 8310576

Claim:
An imaging system comprising: a solid-state imaging device including a plurality of pixels arranged in columns, column amplifiers respectively corresponding to the columns of pixels, and an output portion for outputting an image signal based on an amplification by the column amplifiers; and a signal processor for receiving the image signal, wherein each column amplifier amplifies a signal output from a pixel of a corresponding column of pixels by a gain q greater than 1, and the signal processor amplifies, by a factor smaller than 1, the image signal based on the signal amplified by the gain q, wherein the signal processor includes an analog-to-digital converter for converting the image signal into a digital signal, and wherein each column amplifier amplifies a signal output from a pixel of the corresponding column of pixels by a gain p smaller than the gain q, and the signal processor includes a bit convertor for converting a bit number of the digital signal by adding a redundant bit to the digital signal converted by the analog-to-digital converter from the image signal based on the amplification by the gain p, and to the digital signal converted by the analog-to-digital converter from the image signal based on the amplification by the gain q.