The present invention provides a digital still camera that can read high quality image data from a solid state image pickup device in both the low and the high sensitivity modes. The digital still camera according to the present invention includes shooting mode selecting means for checking and setting a shooting mode and reading mode selecting means for selecting a suitable reading mode in accordance with the set shooting mode. As the reading mode, full-pixel reading mode and two-field reading mode are provided in this invention. The digital still camera also includes a solid state image pickup device having imaging pixels for accumulating signal charges of an image. Since the signal charges are read in the suitable reading mode, it is possible to avoid mixing colors or decreasing signal charges as time go on. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a high quality image data.