Polarization imaging systems have been widely used to selectively characterize skin lesions. Nevertheless, current systems are used in single-mode due to the limitations of a fixed polarization mode and a single-working distance of light source, in which uniform light distribution is achieved on target area. To address such limitations, we developed a variable polarization imaging system based on multi-working distance of light source for various clinical diagnoses. In this study, we characterize the imaging system and present experiment results demonstrating its clinical usefulness. The imaging system consists of a CCD color camera, linear polarization filters, and a single-layered LED ring light source which provides uniform light distribution at multi-working distances. The first polarizer was placed on the light source and the second polarizer placed on objective lens provides continuous linear polarization angle from $0^{circ};to;90^{circ}$. The clinical efficacy of the imaging system was investigated by acquiring and analyzing clinical images of skin wrinkle and dental plaque. With the experiments, we verified the potential usefulness of the imaging system for other clinical applications.