3D image shooting apparatus and endoscope

A 3D image shooting apparatus comprising:

• a polarized light source section that sequentially illuminates an object with three or more kinds of plane polarized light rays, of which the planes of polarization define mutually different angles;
• an image capturing section that sequentially captures an image of the object that is being illuminated with each of the plane polarized light rays;
• and
• an image processing section,
• wherein the image capturing section includes:
• a lens that produces an image of light that has returned from the object that is being illuminated by the polarized light source section;
• an image sensor that generates, through photoelectric conversion, a pixel signal based on the image produced by the lens;
• and
• an incoming light transmitting section which transmits the light that has returned from the object and which has a transparent area and a plurality of polarization filter areas, and
• wherein the plurality of polarization filter areas are arranged outside of the transparent area, generally have a concentric ring shape, and include left and right filter areas that are respectively arranged on the left- and right-hand sides of the optical axis of the lens so that their polarization transmission axis directions define an angle α that is greater than zero degrees but smaller than 90 degrees, and
• wherein based on the pixel signal that is generated by the image sensor when the object is being illuminated with each of the plane polarized light rays, the image processing section generates a plurality of images from light that has been transmitted through the transparent area and light that has been transmitted through the plurality of polarization filter areas.