The present invention enables prevention of influence of a trigger pulse in an image from an image pickup apparatus, with a simple structure and irrespective of exposure time and the cycle of the trigger pulse. The present invention provides an image pickup apparatus having a CCD image sensor 202 in which electric charges obtained by photoelectric conversion of incident light from an object are stored, the stored electric charges are swept away when a shutter pulse SUB is supplied, and after a read-out pulse SG is supplied, an image pickup signal based on the stored electric charges is read out synchronously with a horizontal synchronizing signal HD, and the image pickup apparatus comprises a timing generator 212 for generating the read-out pulse during a blanking period of the horizontal synchronizing signal, first shutter pulse generation means 310 for generating a first shutter pulse sub1 during every horizontal blanking period of the horizontal synchronizing signal except for a period from generation of a trigger pulse TRIG until generation of the read-out pulse, second shutter pulse generation means 320 for generating a second shutter pulse sub2 at the timing of the trigger pulse, and a switch 330 for selecting either the first shutter pulse sub1 or the second shutter pulse sub2.