Solid-state image pickup element, image pickup apparatus, and control method of solid-state image pickup element

An image pickup apparatus comprising:

• a gain processing unit configured to increase or decrease a plurality of image signals using gains different from each other;
• an analog to digital conversion unit configured to generate a plurality of image data by performing analog to digital conversion on the increased or decreased plurality of image signals;
• a calculation unit configured to add data obtained by multiplying short-time exposure data being any of the plurality of image data, by a ratio between the gains, and data among the plurality of image data that does not correspond to the short-time exposure data, and output the added data as long-time exposure data;
• a combining unit configured to combine the short-time exposure data and the long-time exposure data at a predetermined combining ratio, and output the added data as a combined frame;
• and
• a digital signal processing unit configured to execute predetermined digital signal processing on the combined frame.

A control method of a solid-state image pickup element, the control method comprising:

• a gain processing procedure of increasing or decreasing a plurality of image signals using gains different from each other;
• an analog to digital conversion procedure of generating a plurality of image data by performing analog to digital conversion on the increased or decreased plurality of image signals;
• a calculation procedure of adding data obtained by multiplying short-time exposure data being any of the plurality of image data, by a ratio between the gains, and data among the plurality of image data that does not correspond to the short-time exposure data, and outputting the added data as long-time exposure data;
• and
• a combining procedure of combining the short-time exposure data and the long-time exposure data at a predetermined combining ratio.