Imaging spectrometer and camera with sliding lens group

An imaging spectrometer camera adapted to receive incident light from a medical scope, comprising:

• an optical channel receiving and focusing incident light at a first image plane to form an image at the first image plane;
• an imaging spectrometer positioned downstream from the optical channel and comprising:
• a slit formed in an optical stop at the first image plane to allow a slit-shaped portion of the incident light pass through;
• a dispersive element constructed and arranged to receive incident light from the slit and spectrally disperse it along a direction perpendicular to a width of the slit;
• a focusing lens arranged to focus the spectrally dispersed light at a second image plane such that the spectral dispersion is imaged along a first axis of the second image plane, and a spatial image of the slit width is imaged along a second axis of the image plane;
• and
• a focal plane array sensor at the second image plane operable to detect the spectrally dispersed light;
• and
• a scanning system comprising a sliding lens group arranged in the optical channel upstream of the first image plane and adapted to move linearly in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the imaging channel and perpendicularly to length of the slit, to direct the incident light in a varying offset position thereby scanning the entire image over the slit such that multiple frames acquired time sequentially by the focal plane array sensor each correspond to a horizontal line of the image.