Patent ID: 7322705

Claim:
An illumination apparatus which illuminates an illumination target area observed by an operator of the apparatus with light, comprising: an illumination color setting portion configured to set a color of illumination light illuminating the target area; a plurality of luminous bodies configured to emit light having spectral components of different wavelength bands, respectively; a luminous body selection portion configured to select luminous bodies emitting the light, of the plurality of luminous bodies, in accordance with the color of the illumination light set by the illumination color setting portion; and a luminous body drive portion configured to allow each of the luminous bodies selected by the luminous body selection portion to conduct pulse light emission, wherein the plurality of luminous bodies are comprised of a plurality of luminous bodies emitting light which has the same spectral components; and the luminous body drive portion controls light quantity of the illumination light of each spectral component by the number of luminous bodies being selected among the plurality of luminous bodies respectively emitting light which has the same spectral components, and further allows each of the plurality of luminous bodies to conduct the pulse light emission in a short period by which an observer recognizes the color of the illumination light illuminating the illumination target area as a color obtained by mixing colors of the light emitted from the selected luminous bodies.