Patent ID: 7595828

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a pixel array area in which pixels are two-dimensionally arranged in a matrix, each pixel including a photoelectric conversion portion; a plurality of capacitors which store electric charges of the pixels in a plurality of rows for each column, the electric charges being output from the pixel array area via a vertical signal line; a plurality of output circuits to output analog signals corresponding to the electric charges stored in the plurality of capacitors; first switching means to selectively short-circuit input terminals of the plurality of output circuits; and second switching means to selectively short-circuit output terminals of the plurality of output circuits, wherein, the plurality of capacitors and the plurality of output circuits are provided so as to correspond to a plurality of horizontal signal lines, and the electric charges output from the plurality of capacitors via the plurality of horizontal signal lines are converted into voltages by the plurality of output circuits.