PURPOSE: To suppress the enlargement of an area due to the increase of photodetectors and to realize a solid image pickup element which has high resolution and occupies an small area by providing the photodetectors at the right and the left sides of one vertical transferring part, and storing and transferring a charge stored in the two photodetectors by the one vertical transferring part.

CONSTITUTION: The charge stored in a photodetector 1 is stored in a register 4 of a vertical transferring part 3 by a read-out gate 6. Next, the charge stored in the register 4 is transferred to a register 5, and after that, the charge stored in a photodetector 2 is stored in the register 4 by a read-out gate 7. Then, the charge of the photodetectors 1 and 2 are transferred one by one to the direction of a horizontal transferring part 8, and outputted through an amplifier 9. Then, the charge of the photodetectors 1 and 2 are synthesized at the outside of the elements. Thus, the charge from the two photodetectors 1 and 2 are stored and transferred by the one vertical transferring part 3.