METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DRIVING A SOLID STATE CAMERA

摘要

A method and apparatus for increasing the sensitivity of a charge priming type solid state camera having means for sweeping out undesired excess charges generated by a vertical smear from vertical signal lines. When the scene illumination is higher than an appropriate value, the sweep out of the undesired excess charges is executed within each horizontal blanking period in order to reduce the vertical smear. When the scene illumination becomes lower than the appropriate value, the sweep out thereof is stopped in order to increase the sensitivity. Alternatively, when the scene illumination is lower than the appropriate value but the quantity of the vertical smear is larger than a fixed value, the sweep out thereof is executed within each horizontal blanking period in order to suppress vertical smear which is at an unacceptably high level even though the illumination level is relatively low.