The invention relates to an imaging system comprising: a medical instrument (3) that is separable from a connection support (4), the separable medical instrument including an insertion tube provided with a non-volatile memory (23); an imaging appliance (11) including a processor and image display unit connected to the viewing system; and a control unit (20) enabling the operation of the imaging appliance (11) to be controlled and connected to a system (21) for detecting connection between the medical instrument (3) and the connection support (4). According to the invention, the non-volatile memory (23) contains identity data of the associated medical instrument and utilization data concerning the imaging appliance sent by the control unit (20) on each connection, and the control unit (20) authorizes operation of the imaging appliance (11) only if the user is identified and has given authorization. The medical instrument can thus be reused under the entire responsibility of the user.