Fig. 4 Two views down a combustor can with the distal tip in the same position.

A fiberscope with smaller

diameter fibers and 40% more fibers in the image bundle provides better resolution (a) than a fiberscope with
larger fibers (b). Courtesy of Olympus Corporation

The interchangeable distal tips provide various directions and fields of view on a single fiberscope. However, because the
tip can be articulated for scanning purposes, distal tips with either a forward or side viewing direction are usually
sufficient. Fields of view are typically 40 to 60°, although they can range from 10 to 120°. Most fiberscopes provide
adjustable focusing of the objective lens.

Videoscopes with CCD probes involve the electronic transmission of color or black and white images to a video
monitor. The distal end of electronic videoscopes contains a CCD chip, which consists of thousands of light-sensitive
elements arrayed in a pattern of rows and columns. The objective lens focuses the image of an object on the surface of the
CCD chip, where the light is converted to electrons that are stored in each picture element, or pixel, of the CCD device.
The image of the object is thus stored in the form of electrons on the CCD device. At this point, a voltage proportional to
the number of electrons at each pixel is determined electronically for each pixel site. This voltage is then amplified,
filtered, and sent to the input of a video monitor.

Videoscopes with CCD probes produce images (Fig. 5) with spatial resolutions of the order of those described in Fig. 6.
Like rigid borescopes and flexible fiberscopes, the resolution of videoscopes depends on the object-to-lens distance and
the fields of view, because these two factors affect the amount of magnification (see the section "Magnification and Field
of View" in this article). Generally, videoscopes produce higher resolution than fiberscopes, although fiberscopes with
smaller diameter fibers (Fig. 4a) may be competitive with the resolution of videoscopes.

Fig. 5 Videoscope images (a) inside engine guide vanes (b) of an engine fuel nozzle. Courtesy of Welch Allyn,
Inc.