Patent ID: RE41467

Claim:
An endoscopic imaging system, comprising: an endoscope including an elongated insertion unit having a terminal portion, an illumination optical system located at the terminal portion of the elongated insertion unit for emitting illumination light, an objective optical system located at the terminal portion of said insertion unit for forming an optical image of an object illuminated with the illumination light, and an imaging device for photoelectrically converting the optical image either directly upon formation or after being transmitted through the insertion unit; a signal processing apparatus for driving said imaging device, processing an image signal output from said imaging device, generating a digital video signal and an analog video signal, and outputting the video signals through a digital video signal output terminal and analog video signal output terminal, respectively; a monitor for displaying an object image represented by the analog video signal in response to input of the analog video signal output through said analog video signal output terminal; and an expansion unit to be coupled to said digital video signal output terminal in a freely detachable manner, the expansion unit being provided with at least one of a compression unit for compressing data represented by the digital video signal and a PC card slot to which a PC card on which a digital video signal representing a still image whose data has been compressed by said compression unit is stored can be coupled in the freely detachable manner.