Patent ID: 8254019

Claim:
A confocal microscope apparatus, comprising: a light source; an illuminating optical system collecting light from the light source onto a sample; a collecting optical system collecting light from the sample; a detecting unit being disposed on a collecting location at a single depth direction of the collecting optical system, separating incident light into at least a light from a vicinity of a collecting point on the sample and a light from a peripheral of the vicinity of the collecting point, and detecting each of the lights; and an image generating unit generating an image of the sample by performing calculation processing on a signal of the light from the vicinity of the collecting point and a signal of the light from the peripheral of the vicinity of the collecting point output from the detecting unit, and setting a ratio of the signal of the light from the vicinity of the collecting point to the signal of the light from the peripheral of the vicinity of the collecting point for each of areas on the image, wherein the image generating unit displays the image in accordance with the ratio set for each of the areas on the image, and the ratios for each of the areas can change independently and continuously to non-incrementally adjust a sectioning resolution.