Patent ID: 7760260

Claim:
A solid state imaging apparatus, comprising: a plurality of pixels two-dimensionally arranged in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction wherein each of the plurality of pixels has a color filter having a different color from color filters of vertically or horizontally adjacent pixels; and a signal output circuit configured to perform one of two types of operations, wherein the signal output circuit includes: a shift register for sequentially outputting selection signals, which drive each pixel, to all of the plurality of pixels either in a vertical or a horizontal direction, and an operation switching circuit for outputting the selection signals from the shift register to each pixel, the operation switching circuit configured to switch between a first signal transmission method in which the selection signals are sequentially output to all pixels either in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction and a second signal transmission method in which the selection signals are continuously output to pixels having color filters of the same color either in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction, and wherein in both of the first and second signal transmission methods, each of the selection signals of the shift register is output via the operation switching circuit to a corresponding pixel included in the same pixel group arranged in the same direction as the shift register, such that all pixels in the pixel group receive a selection signal from the shift register in the first signal transmission method and all pixels in the pixel group receive a selection signal from the shift register in the second signal transmission method.