Patent ID: 8786688

Claim:
An endoscope comprising: an image pickup device drive circuit configured to output a drive signal for driving an image pickup device provided in an insertion portion of the endoscope; a correlated double sampling circuit configured to output a post-sampling image pickup signal obtained by sampling an image pickup signal outputted from the image pickup device driven by the drive signal, via a feedthrough sampling pulse and a clamp pulse; a control apparatus configured to control a sampling timing of each of the feedthrough sampling pulse and the clamp pulse used in the correlated double sampling circuit, and configured to evaluate the post-sampling image pickup signal outputted from the correlated double sampling circuit; and a storage apparatus configured to be rewritable and to store timing information on respective timings controlled by the control apparatus, and timing determination procedure information determined by an evaluation range of the post-sampling image pickup signal based on a type of the endoscope, wherein the control apparatus, upon receipt of an adjustment instruction for adjustment of the respective timings of the feedthrough sampling pulse and the clamp pulse, rewrites the timing information in the storage apparatus according to a result of evaluation of a plurality of post-sampling image pickup signals obtained by shifting the respective timings based on the timing determination procedure information, the shifting of the respective timings being performed by, with timing of one of the feedthrough sampling pulse and the clamp pulse fixed, shifting timing of the other of the feedthrough sampling pulse and the clamp pulse, and then by, with the timing of the other of the feedthrough sampling pulse and the clamp pulse fixed, shifting the timing of the one of the feedthrough sampling pulse and the clamp pulse, and wherein the timing determination procedure information includes: an evaluation criterion for designating either of evaluations that each of the post-sampling image pickup signals is evaluated based on both of a noise level and an output level of the post-sampling image pickup signal and that each of the post-sampling image pickup signals is evaluated based only on an output level of the post-sampling image pickup signal; adjustment parameters for a range in which the respective timings are shifted and a sampling position for each of a feedthrough waveform part and an output waveform part in an image pickup signal corresponding to one pixel; and environment setting information at least including a set value for a light source apparatus and a gain of a circuit in the endoscope when the plurality of post-sampling image pickup signals are obtained by the control apparatus shifting the respective timings.