A digital camera feeds information input on an operation panel to a system
controller. The system controller generates a control signal in
accordance with optical sensitivity selected and feeds it to a timing
signal generator. The timing signal generator includes a signal
generator, which generates a timing signal whose frequency matches with
the control signal. While a solid-image image sensor is driven by the
timing signal, the frequency of a horizontal transfer signal is made
lower than the usual frequency in accordance with the sensitivity
selected. This prevents the number of electrons from noticeably
decreasing during horizontal transfer to thereby enhance transfer
efficiency for a single stage of transfer.