Image capturing apparatus and endoscope

An endoscope including an insertion portion, wherein

• the insertion portion comprises, at an end thereof;
• a guiding section that guides light from an object into the endoscope;
• a light splitting section that reflects the guided light in a direction substantially orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the endoscope and transmits the guided light in the longitudinal direction of the endoscope, the light splitting section transmitting a larger amount of the guided light than reflecting;
• a first imaging element that receives the light reflected by the light splitting section;
• a second imaging element that receives the light transmitted by the light splitting section;
• and
• a zoom lens system that is provided between the light splitting section and the second imaging element.

An endoscope including an insertion portion, wherein

• the insertion portion comprises, at an end thereof;
• a guiding section that guides light from an object into the endoscope;
• a light splitting section that splits the guided light into two sets of light rays;
• a first imaging element that receives one of the two sets of light rays produced by the light splitting section;
• and
• a second imaging element that receives the other of the two sets of light rays produced by the light splitting section, wherein
• the second imaging element has a smaller area of effective pixels and a higher resolution per unit area than the first imaging element.