Patent 7378630 was granted and assigned to Fujinon on May, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A light emitting unit which radiates auxiliary light to a subject to be imaged, said light emitting unit comprising:a plurality of light emitting elements disposed so as to have radiation areas different from each other, said light emitting elements being electrically connected in series; anda changing device which changes the number of light emitting elements in a light emitting state in said light emitting elements.