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AssigneeKonica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc.
InventorToshihito Kido
Estimating the term…
In an image capturing apparatus, a gain of an amplifier for amplifying an image signal output from an image sensor is variable, and a waveform pattern of drive pulses applied to the image sensor is changed in accordance with the gain. For example, when the gain is lower than 12 dB, the drive pulses are set to have an A pattern, to make the number of chare storage gates equal to four. When the gain is equal to or higher than 12 dB, the drive pulses are set to have a B pattern, to make the number of charge storage gates equal to three. In the image sensor, while an amount of dark noise decreases as the number of charge storage gates is smaller, the number of charge storage gates is reduced in the foregoing manner when the gain is set to a high value, to prevent degradation of a signal-to-noise ratio. Hence, degradation in quality of a captured image can be prevented even in photographing a subject with a low brightness.
An image capturing apparatus comprising:
An image sensor driving circuit comprising:
An image capturing method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.