PURPOSE: To prevent deterioration of picture quality due to granular noise and tracking error of light/dark section by reading a photoelectric converting signal generated in a solid-state image pickup element over plural number of times as a picture signal from the solid-state image pickup element and operating and storing each picture signal.

CONSTITUTION: When read of a picture signal is performed sequentially for plural number of times from a solid-state image pickup element SID and the read of the picture signal from the solid-state image pickup element SID reaches the N-th reading, the picture signal read at the N-th time is converted into a digital picture signal from the solid-state image pickup element SID by an AD converter ADC and given to a digital signal processing circuit SDd, where the digital picture signal corresponding to the picture signal read at the N-th time from the solid-state image pickup element SID and a signal as the result of reading of the digital picture signal stored in a semiconductor memory M from a semiconductor memory are operated and added, and the signal after operation and addition is stored in the semiconductor memory M by a memory control function.