The present invention relates to an endoscope having side illumination, and the endoscope includes an elongated endoscope shaft (2) having an outer tube (4), and the distal end of the endoscope shaft (2) is provided. In the distal region, an incident optical element having a viewing direction that is pivotable on at least one pivot plane (12) is arranged, the endoscope shaft (2) being located at the distal end of the endoscope shaft (2) ( 3) contains one or more illumination fiber optic bundles (20, 22) that terminate at the exit surface, at least the first illumination fiber bundle (20) being an endoscope shaft with a viewing angle of 0? Illuminate the front region of the distal end (3) of (2) and at least the second illumination fiber optic bundle (22) has another region with a lateral viewing angle or lateral viewing angle range of 0? Irradiate. The present invention further relates to the use of an endoscope and a method for operating the endoscope. The endoscope of the present invention has one or more light emitting diodes (24, 26) disposed in or on the periphery in the region of the distal end (3) of the endoscope shaft (2), One light-emitting diode (24) or a plurality of light-emitting diodes (24, 26) can illuminate in the swiveling surface (12) and / or of the swiveling surface (12) for illumination with a viewing angle or viewing angle range of about 90? It is arranged around.本発明は、側方照明を有する内視鏡に関し、該内視鏡は外管（４）を有する長尺状の内視鏡シャフト（２）を備え、該内視鏡シャフト（２）の遠位領域には、少なくとも１つの旋回面（１２）において旋回可能な視野方向を有する入射光学素子が配置され、該内視鏡シャフト（２）は、内視鏡シャフト（２）の遠位端（３）において出射面にて終端する、１つ又は複数の照明光ファイバー束（２０，２２）を収容しており、少なくとも第１の照明光ファイバー束（２０）は０°の視野角で内視鏡シャフト（２）の遠位端（３）の前方領域を照射し、少なくとも第２の照明光ファイバー束（２２）は、０°～９０°の側方視野角又は側方視野角範囲で別の領域を照射する。本発明は更に、内視鏡の使用及び内視鏡の操作方法に関する。本発明の内視鏡は、１つ又は複数の発光ダイオード（２４，２６）が、内視鏡シャフト（２）の遠位端（３）の領域における周縁部内又は周縁部上に配置され、該１つの発光ダイオード（２４）又は複数の発光ダイオード（２４，２６）は、約９０°の視野角又は視野角範囲で照射するために、旋回面（１２）内及び／又は旋回面（１２）の周囲に配置されていることを特徴とする。
