Camera apparatus selectively operable as a fully electronic slit camera

Claim 1

A camera for generating an image of an object moving at high speed, comprising: a two-dimensional array of image elements for forming lines of image charge signals; a plurality of liens of charge storage registers extending in a line direction and arrayed in association with said array of image elements for storing said image charge signals formed by said array of image elements and for shifting said stored image charge signals line-by-line in a column direction that is perpendicular to said line direction; a line output register that is adjacent in said column direction to said lines of charge storage registers for receiving said shifted image charge signals line-by-line and for shifting a received line of said image charge signals element-by-element to an output terminal; means for selecting at least one line of wanted image charge signals from among said image charge signals stored in said lines of charge storage registers; and means for driving said lines of charge storage registers so that said image charge signals stored therein are shifted toward said line output register at a first rate at a time when said at least one line of wanted image charge signals is being shifted into said line output register and so that said image charge signals stored in said charge storage registers are shifted toward said line output register at a second rate that is substantially faster than said first rate at times when lines of said image charge signals other than said at least one line are being shifted into said line output register.