Imaging apparatus

An imaging apparatus comprising:

• a solid-state imaging device having a plurality of light receiving elements arranged into a two dimensional array on an imaging surface composed of an effective pixel area and optical black areas, said light receiving elements belonging to one of first and second element groups whose exposure times can be controlled separately, each of said first and second element groups being settable to high or low sensitivity;
• a memory for storing defective pixel information of said optical black areas;
• a drive controller for driving said solid-state imaging device, said drive controller referring to said defective pixel information and setting one of said first and second element groups having more defective pixels in said optical black areas to low sensitivity while setting the other of said element groups having less defective pixels in said optical black areas to high sensitivity;
• a clamping device for firstly acquiring an average value of output signals from said optical black areas and subsequently correcting each output signal from said effective pixel area with said average value, said clamping device performing said average value acquisition and said output signal correction to each of said first and second element groups;
• and
• an image processor for generating image data after combining said corrected output signals of said first and second element groups in each pixel.