An endoscope apparatus includes an illumination unit capable of irradiating a subject with illumination light of white light or light of a plurality of wavelength bands, a color filter including a plurality of filters, and captures returning light from the subject When the image pickup unit picks up two or more return light beams in a plurality of wavelength bands within the transmission wavelength band of at least one filter of the plurality of filters, the illumination unit changes the illumination light to two or more In the case of irradiating time-divisionally and picking up return light in a state in which at most two or more wavelength bands of each of a plurality of filters each include one or less return light, the illumination unit includes two or more And an illumination control unit that performs control so as to simultaneously illuminate the illumination light in the wavelength band.内視鏡装置は、被検体に対して白色光又は複数の波長帯域の光の照明光を照射可能な照明部と、複数のフィルタからなるカラーフィルタを有し、被検体からの戻り光を撮像する撮像部と、撮像部により複数のフィルタにおける少なくとも1つのフィルタの透過波長帯域内に2つ以上の複数の波長帯域の戻り光を撮像する場合には、照明部が照明光を2つ以上に時分割して照射し、複数のフィルタにおける少なくとも2つ以上の波長帯域内にそれぞれ1つ以下の戻り光が含まれる状態で戻り光を撮像する場合には、照明部が2つ以上の複数の波長帯域の照明光を同時に照射するように制御する照明制御部と、を備える。
