To achieve more accurate endoscopic examination by reducing the intervals for acquiring regular and special images with regular and special illumination light as much as possible.
When a simultaneous imaging mode is selected, a regular illumination light source 50 and a special illumination light source 51 simultaneously or alternately emit regular illumination light and special illumination light in each accumulation period in a CCD 23. In the 2nth imaging operation, the frame inter-line transfer CCD 23 starts accumulation of electric charge to a light receiving element immediately after reading and transferring the signal charge from the light receiving element to a first vertical CCD in the 2n-1th imaging operation with the regular illumination light. After accumulation of the electric charge, the CCD 23 reads and transfers the signal charge according to reading pulses. After the reading and transferring, the CCD 23 retains the signal charge in the first vertical CCD till the horizontal transfer of the signal charge in the 2n-1th imaging operation is terminated.
ENDO AZUCHI
TAKAMATSU MASAKI
