Patent ID: 8480571

Claim:
An endoscopic device comprising: an endoscope comprising an image pickup unit for picking up an image of a subject and outputting the picked up image of the subject as an image pickup signal; an image pickup signal amplification unit for amplifying the image pickup signal; a light source unit for emitting first illumination light having at least a visible region band to the subject; a light intensity control unit for controlling an amount of light emitted from the light source unit, the light intensity control unit comprising: a diaphragm arranged on an optical path of the light source unit; and a light source drive unit that supplies a drive current to the light source unit; a spectral unit, having predetermined spectral characteristics, for penetrating a light in a band based on the predetermined spectral characteristics among the lights emitted from the light source unit when arranged on the optical path of the light source unit; a brightness control unit for controlling a brightness of an image generated based on the image pickup signal and displayed on a display unit; and a mode switching unit for switching a first mode in which the spectral unit is removed from the optical path of the light source unit to emit the first illumination light to the subject and a second mode in which the spectral unit is arranged on the optical path of the light source unit to emit the second illumination light having a band narrower than the first illumination light to the subject, wherein the brightness control unit, in the second mode, controls the diaphragm when first detecting that the brightness of the image displayed on the display unit is not a brightness appropriate for observation, controls the light source drive unit when detecting that the brightness of the image displayed on the display unit is not a brightness appropriate for observation after an amount of an opening of the diaphragm has reached a maximum, and controls the image pickup signal amplification unit when detecting that the brightness of the image displayed on the display unit is not a brightness appropriate for observation after the amount of the opening of the diaphragm has reached the maximum and the drive current supplied from the light source drive unit to the light source unit has reached a predetermined upper limit value.