Patent ID: 7653300

Claim:
An image recording apparatus in combination with a microscope that includes a driving unit that controls a reflection illumination light source and a transmission illumination light source which illuminate a sample containing a living cell, said combination performing time-lapse photography of said sample, the image recording apparatus comprising: means for accomplishing exposure control at a desired time interval during a photographic period; and means for establishing exposure conditions for photography that are within a dynamic range inherent in a CCD solid state image pickup device of the image recording apparatus; wherein the means for establishing exposure conditions establishes exposure conditions only when the luminous brightness of the sample at the start of measurement and the brightness value detected at a time interval changes by a specified threshold value so that a fluorescent image of the sample is recorded at a roughly uniform brightness, and said driving unit controls shutters such that, when waiting for photography in time-lapse photography, said sample is shielded from said reflection illumination light source and said transmission illumination light source.