A hand-held digital camera for obtaining images of a portion of a
patient's body and having a hand-held housing, a visible light source
located within the housing for providing light along an illumination path
from the housing aperture to the patient's body, an image sensor located
within the housing that detects light returning from the patient's body
along an imaging path that passes into the housing aperture, an optical
system located within the housing with separate illumination and imaging
paths, an external optical aperture common to the illumination and
imaging systems, wherein the illumination and imaging sub-apertures are
wholly contained within the common external aperture, are longitudinally
coincident, and are laterally separated and non-overlapping, a digital
memory device for storing captured images, an output display carried by
the housing, and the ability to electronically transmit stored images.
The camera can be used for retinal imaging and for otoscopy.