An image pickup apparatus includes: a first sample hold circuit configured to sample-hold an image pickup signal; a second sample hold circuit configured to sample-hold a reference voltage signal; an output selection circuit configured to switchingly select one of the image pickup signal inputted from the first sample hold circuit and the reference voltage signal and output a selected signal as an image pickup output; and a timing generator configured to control a timing of the switching selection of the output selection circuit; wherein the timing generator decides the timing of the switching selection so that the reference voltage signal is transmitted in one pixel transmission period required for transmission of the image pickup signal of one pixel, and the reference voltage signal is transmitted once every time the image pickup signal of each of a plurality of pixels is transmitted.