Patent ID: 7232980

Claim:
A microscope system comprising: a light guiding optical system containing optical splitting means for splitting an optical image of a sample into a first optical path for image acquisition and a second optical path for focus control; first image pickup means which is disposed on the first optical path and used to acquire a one-dimensional or two-dimensional first image based on an optical image split to the first optical path; second image pickup means which is disposed on the second optical path so that an optical path length in the light guiding optical system varies along a predetermined variation direction on the image pickup face thereof and is used to acquire a two-dimensional second image for focus control based on an optical image split to the second optical path; focus control means for analyzing the second image acquired by the second image pickup means and controlling the focal point for image pickup by the first image pickup means on the basis of the analysis result; wherein the focus control means analyzes the image contrast variation in the variation direction in the second image and controls the focal point for image pickup on the basis of the analysis result; wherein the focus control means cuts out a measurement target image having a predetermined width along the variation direction from the second image and analyzes the image contrast variation on the basis of a differential absolute value image between the measurement target image and a shift image acquired by shifting the measurement target image in the direction vertical to the variation direction; and image acquisition control means for controlling acquisition of the first image acquired by the first image pickup means.