Provided is an image processing apparatus capable of viewing even a characteristic portion of an inspection object even if partial image data of the inspection object is used for inspection. The image processing apparatus includes: an imaging portion for imaging an inspection object; a compression processing portion for executing compression processing on image data captured by the imaging portion, to generate compressed image data; and an image processing portion for executing image processing for an inspection. The image processing portion generates partial image data as part of the captured image data, and accepts a selection of any of the compressed image data and the partial image data as the image data for use in the image processing. The image processing portion executes the image processing for the inspection by use of the compressed image data or the partial image data, the selection of which has been accepted.