Patent ID: 8144189

Claim:
An image acquisition apparatus for capturing an image of an observation target, comprising: a head section configured to include an image acquisition module that incorporates therein an image acquisition part for capturing an image, a lens module that is connected to the image acquisition module and incorporates therein an optical lens optically coupled to the image acquisition part, and an illuminating part that illuminates an observation target of an image formed on the image acquisition part through the lens module; a main body section configured to include an illumination light source that supplies illumination light to the illuminating part, an image acquisition control part that generates an image acquisition control signal for controlling the image acquisition part and, then, transmits the image acquisition control signal to the image acquisition part, and an image processing part that performs an imaging process on an enlarged image captured by the image acquisition part; and a cable section configured to include an illumination light supply cable that connects between the illumination light source in the main body section and the illuminating part in the head section and supplies the illumination light from the illumination light source to an observation target region through the lens module, and a signal transmission cable that transmits the image acquisition control signal from the image acquisition control part in the main body section to the image acquisition part in the head section and, also, transmits an image signal from the image acquisition part to the image processing part in the main body section, the cable section being configured to connect between the main body section and the head section, wherein the lens module is one of a first lens module incorporating therein an optical lens for high-speed observation and a second lens module incorporating therein an optical lens for enlargement observation, which is selectively attached to the head section, and said second lens module has an illumination optical path at an inside of said lens module and said first lens module has an attachable illumination unit at an outside of said lens module and said attachable illumination unit has at least one mechanism that is either an illumination unit tilt angle adjusting mechanism for adjusting a tilt angle of the first lens illumination unit relative to the first lens module or a diameter of spot light adjusting mechanism for adjusting a diameter of spot light projected from said illumination unit, and in a case where the first lens module is attached to the head section, the illuminating part is a first lens illumination unit that adjusts a working distance of illumination light for illuminating a region of which an image is captured by the first lens module, the first lens illumination unit being attached to the head section.