Patent ID: 8451534

Claim:
A microscope system, comprising: a microscope for observing a sample; an illumination unit which illuminates the sample; a light control direction unit which specifies a quantity of light I output from the illumination unit, wherein the light control direction unit is capable of rotating a rotating scale and outputting a turning degree θ of the rotating scale as directive information indicating the quantity of light to be output from the illumination unit; an observation method switch unit for switching a currently set observation method of the microscope between a plurality of observation methods; a storage unit which stores voltage-related information in which turning degrees θ which are specifiable by the light control direction unit and voltage values to be applied to the illumination unit are respectively associated with each other, wherein the voltage-related information is defined for each observation method, and the turning degrees θ which are specifiable by the light control direction unit are in an entire range of the rotating scale in each observation method; a light quantity control unit which controls the quantity of light I emitted from the illumination unit; and a control unit which acquires the voltage value corresponding to the turning degree θ specified by the light control direction unit from the voltage-related information corresponding to the currently set observation method, wherein the control unit allows the light quantity control unit to control the quantity of light I emitted from the illumination unit based on the acquired voltage value so that the quantity of light I will be 0 until the specified turning degree θ exceeds a threshold set according to the currently set observation method, and so that a relationship between the turning degree θ and the quantity of light I of the illumination unit will be I(θ) ∝ θ or I(θ) ∝ EXP(θ) when the specified turning degree θ exceeds the threshold.