Illumination light supplied from an illumination light supplying unit that
can selectively supply a plurality kinds of illumination lights whose
wavelengths fall in different regions is supplied to an object. A signal
picking up an image of the object is received by a programmable circuit
unit that is programmably constructed based on circuit data, and then
subjected to signal processing. A circuit data holding unit holds a
plurality kinds of circuit data to be used for the programmable circuit
unit. A control unit selects circuit data, which is used for the
programmable circuit unit, from among all the circuit data items held in
the circuit data holding unit corresponding to illumination light
supplied from the illumination light supplying unit.