To prevent the reduction of the quantity of charges to be dealt in vertical CCD when an electronic shutter operates by applying a shutter pulse for signal charge sweep-out while the voltage of a high level is applied to major transfer electrodes.

In the example of a solid-state image pickup element using vertical CCD of four phase driving, the L-level time of a horizontal blanking signal H-BLK shows a horizontal blanking period. The vertical transfer clocks V1-V4 of four phases are applied to four transfer electrodes provided for per image element of vertical CCD. When vertical transfer clocks V1-V4 are in the H-level, potential under the transfer electrodes becomes deep and the signal charges are held by a part where potential becomes deep. When the shutter pulse SUB is in the H-level, the signal charges are swept out.