Method and device for driving solid-state imaging device, imaging apparatus, and image synthesizing method

Abstract

A method for driving a solid-state imaging device including a plurality of pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array, each of the plurality of pixels accumulating a signal charge according to an amount of incident light, is provided. The method includes: performing electron multiplication of a first signal charge at a first multiplication factor to output a first image signal; and performing electron multiplication of a second signal charge at a second multiplication factor to output a second image signal, at least the first and second image signals being image signals of the same scene of a subject and being successively output.

Description

[0001] This application is based on and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-94675 filed on March 30, 2007, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. technical field [0002] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for driving a solid-state imaging device, an imaging apparatus, and an image synthesis method in the imaging apparatus, which are capable of acquiring images in a wide dynamic range. Background technique [0003] JP-A-6-141229 discloses an example of a camera for obtaining a wide dynamic range image. In JP-A-6-141229, an overexposed image and an underexposed image of the same subject are continuously acquired and synthesized to widen the dynamic range of the image. [0004] In JP-A-59-210775, a solid-state imaging device is equipped with two kinds of pixels, a low-sensitivity pixel and a high-sensitivity pixel, and the low-sensitivity image data acquired with the low-sensitivity pixels and the high-sen...

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