Imaging apparatus and endoscope apparatus using the same

Claim 1

An imaging apparatus for observing an object image of ordinary light and an object image of particular light comprising: an illuminating means for emitting an illuminating light of a wavelength range ranging from a visible range to a range other than the visible range; an image forming optical system forming said object image to be imaged; an imaging means having a sensitivity to a wavelength range ranging from the visible range to the range other than the visible range and using a solid state imaging device converting an image formed by said image forming optical system into an electric signal; a first filter transmitting a narrow band insertably provided in the optical path from said illuminating means to said imaging means; a second filter to separate in time series the wavelength range of the illuminating light from said illuminating means into a plurality of wavelength ranges within the range to which said imaging means has a sensitivity, said second filter having a plurality of types of component filters, respective component filters having a transmitting characteristic of respectively transmitting a first specific wavelength range within the visible band and a second specific wavelength range within the band other than the visible band, said respective component filters of said second filter transmit respectively different first specific wavelength ranges within said visible band, said second specific wavelength ranges within said band other than the visible band transmitted by said respective component filters are the same wavelength ranges within the infrared band; a band dividing means for dividing wavelength ranges of the illuminating light into said visible band and said band other than the visible band, said band dividing means for selecting either band to select a wavelength range imaged by said imaging means and to obtain said object image of ordinary light or particular light, said band dividing means includes a third filter selectively transmitting the visible band and infrared band; and a signal processing means for processing output signals of said imaging means corresponding to the illuminating light of the wavelength ranges within a band selected by said band dividing means by allotting the output signals to respective different color signals so as to be video signals.