An image pickup apparatus includes a solid state image pickup device including a plurality of pixels with, as a unit pixel, a photoelectric conversion element, a transfer section configured to transfer electric charges photoelectrically converted, an electric charge conversion section configured to convert the electric charges into a signal, a reset section configured to reset the signal and a vertical transfer line, an operation mode control section configured to switch a first operation mode in which the reset section and the transfer section are turned off, and a second operation mode in which the reset section is turned off from on, and the transfer section is turned on, a black level correction section configured to correct black levels in an image signal in the second operation mode, and a memory configured to hold pixel signal values of the black levels, and the black level correction section makes correction by using the pixel signal values of the black levels in the memory.
