Abstract: A solid-state imaging system is provided with: a solid-state imaging device including a first scanning circuit for outputting, in a time series manner, signals of a plurality of picture element cells arranged in a two dimensional manner, and a second scanning circuit which performs its vertical scanning operation individually from the vertical scanning operation performed by the first scanning circuit. A sensitivity setting circuit compares a read out signal from the solid-state imaging device and a reference signal which corresponds to the level of a signal to be set. The sensitivity setting circuit also controls the operation start timing of the second scanning circuit so as to make the two signals substantially the same, whereby a unit sensitivity variation is enlarged corresponding to an improvement in the sensitivity to be set for the solid-state imaging device.