Image obtaining method and apparatus of an endoscope apparatus

An image obtaining apparatus for use in an endoscope apparatus comprising:

• an illuminating means for irradiating a living tissue with an illuminating light and an excitation light, each of which is emitted at a mutually different timing,
• a light receiving means for receiving a fluorescent image formed of the fluorescent light emitted from the living tissue upon the irradiation thereof by the excitation light and a standard image formed of the reflected light reflected from the living tissue upon the irradiation thereof by the illuminating light, and photoelectrically converting said received standard image and said received fluorescent image to analog signals representing said received standard image and said received fluorescent image and outputting said analog signals,
• an amplifying means for amplifying said analog signals, and
• an A/D converting means for converting said amplified analog signals to respective digital values, wherein
• said amplifying means amplifies said analog signal representing the fluorescent image by a larger gain than the gain utilized in amplifying said analog signal representing the standard image.

An image obtaining method for use in an endoscope apparatus comprising the steps of:

• irradiating a living tissue with an illuminating light and an excitation light, each of which is emitted at a mutually different timing,
• receiving, by use of a single photoelectric converting element, a fluorescent image formed of the fluorescent light emitted from the living tissue upon the irradiation thereof by the excitation light and a standard image formed of the reflected light reflected from the living tissue upon the irradiation thereof by the illuminating light,
• photoelectrically converting said received standard image and said received fluorescent image to obtain each as respective analog signals,
• converting, by use of an A/D converting means, said analog signals to respective digital values, and
• outputting said digital values as respective image signals, wherein
• said A/D converting means converts said analog signal representing the fluorescent image to digital values with a narrower input range than that with which the analog signal representing the standard image is converted.

An image obtaining apparatus for use in an endoscope apparatus comprising:

• an illuminating means for irradiating a living tissue with an illuminating light and an excitation light, each of which is emitted at a mutually different timing,
• a light receiving means for receiving a fluorescent image formed of the fluorescent light emitted from the living tissue upon the irradiation thereof by the excitation light and a standard image formed of the reflected light reflected from the living tissue upon the irradiation thereof by the illuminating light, and photoelectrically converting said received standard image and said received fluorescent image to analog signals representing said received standard image and said received fluorescent image and outputting said analog signals,
• an amplifying means for amplifying said analog signals, and
• an A/D converting means for converting said amplified analog signals to respective digital values, wherein
• said A/D converting means is a means for converting said analog signal representing the fluorescent image to digital values with a narrower input range than that with which said analog signal representing the standard image is converted.