Patent ID: 7573518

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a photoelectric converting unit having a plurality of pixels, each including at least a photoelectric converting device, disposed in a two-dimensional array; a vertical signal line disposed for each pixel column of said photoelectric converting unit, for sequentially reading a pixel signal; a column unit disposed on an output of said vertical signal line, for sequentially storing the pixel signal of each pixel read by said vertical signal line; and an output unit for sequentially reading the pixel signals stored in said column unit and outputting a corresponding signal; wherein said column unit has a means for controlling amplification of the pixel signal on a pixel-by-pixel basis in order to provide an output; wherein said column unit includes a detecting circuit for detecting the level of the pixel signal output from said vertical signal line and then classifying the level into a predetermined level range; and an amplifying circuit for amplifying the pixel signal output from said vertical signal line; and wherein a division signal from said detecting circuit is output from the column unit, and further wherein at least one pair of said amplifying circuit and said detecting circuit is provided for each pixel column of said photoelectric converting unit.