Endoscope apparatus with an omnidirectional view field and a translatable illuminator

An omnidirectional endoscope device having a view field covering all around the periphery in the peripheral direction, comprising a main body section;

• an insertion section extending from said main body section;
• an omnidirectional light receiving mechanism disposed at a distal end part of said insertion section and for receiving an incident light coming from the entire periphery at the same time in the peripheral direction and reflecting it towards a basal end;
• image transmitting means for transmitting light coming from said omnidirectional light receiving mechanism;
• and an illumination light transmitting mechanism;
• said illumination light transmitting mechanism including illumination light transmitting means extending along said insertion section and for transmitting the illumination light so as to be outputted from a distal end face of said illumination light transmitting means;
• a retaining part for retaining said illumination light transmitting means, at least a distal end part of which is in the form of a ring, and slidably fitted to an outer periphery of said insertion section;
• and a slide control part connected to said retaining part and disposed at a basal part of said insertion section or at said main body section and for sliding said retaining part and thus a distal end part of said illumination light transmitting means along said insertion section.