The following is an overview of the Basic Controls tab of Capture OEM.
Camera Select
The camera select drop down allows you to select the camera you are controlling. Once you've selected a camera, the controls will reflect the current setting for the selected camera. This might take a few seconds.
If no camera is connected, you'll see the following:
Video Preview
The video preview buttons allow you to start, stop and pause the incoming video stream.
Exposure
Click on "Exposure Time" slider and drag to the desired exposure time setting, or enter the setting in the box provided. To have the camera determine the exposure time, click the Auto button and it will calculate a reasonable exposure time based on the average intensity of the image. To have the camera perform an auto-exposure all the time, tick off the check box.
Auto Min and Auto Max can be used to set a minimum and maximum value for the auto exposure operation. To set an exposure value as the Auto Min, drag the slider to that value, or enter the value in the text box, and then click "Auto Min". To "Reset" the values, drag the slider to the far left and click Auto Min to set the minimum to the camera's min exposure.
Gain
Click on the "Gain" slider and drag to the desired gain setting, or enter the setting in the box provided. Click on "Auto" to allow the camera to search for the best gain setting.
Note: Gain has the effect of increasing both the video signal including the noise. Be careful when using this command. It is always preferable to increase the amount of light entering the camera. Use gain only for light starved applications.
For HDR cameras, the HDR drop down can be used to enable On Camera or Interleaved HDR.
Saturation (Color Cameras Only)
Click on "Saturation" slider and drag to the desired saturation setting, or enter the setting in the box provided. A saturation value of 0 places converts the image monochrome Increasing the slider increase the vibrance of the image
Brightness
Click on the "Brightness" slider and drag to the desired setting, or enter the setting in the box provided. The Brightness control adds an offset to each individual pixel.
Note: Brightness is only supported by some PL-B cameras.
Gamma
The Gamma setting controls the contrast in the image by translating pixel values according to a logarithmic curve. A value of one is a linear translation. Higher or lower values of Gamma will result in missing codes in the image histogram. Check the "Gamma" [On] box to enable Gamma, and click on the slider and drag to the desired setting, or enter the setting in the box provided.
Note: The Gamma curve is applied internally in the camera in the form of a calculated look-up table, the same table used by the "Look-up Table" feature. When the Gamma feature is activated the "Look-up Table" feature is disabled and vice-versa.
Frame Rate
The "Frame Rate" setting, in frames per second (fps), allows the user to adjust the frame rate per second of the image. When the camera is connected the frame rate range will be displayed.
To enable manual control of frame rate, check the "Frame Rate (fps)" [On] box and click on the slider and drag to the desired frame rate, or enter the setting in the box provided. When the Frame Rate On box is unchecked, the frame rate will be controlled by the camera.
Color Temperature (Color Cameras Only)
The "Colour Temp." {K} allows the user to select the required temperature setting in correlation to the light source being used. It is recommended that if the user wishes to use this setting that it be set before the white balance is performed.
Check "Color Temp." (K) [On] box if required, click on the slider and drag to the desired color temperature, or enter the setting in the box provided.
White Balance (Color Cameras Only)
The "White Balance" setting allows the user to control the individual red, green and blue channel gains, so that non standard colour balance can be achieved. The "Auto" feature will attempt to white balance the gains (match the histogram peaks of each colour channel) based on the image data in the current ROI.
Direct the camera so that the object you wish to be "considered" as white is in the field of view, click on "Auto" under White Balance (this action will take a few seconds to complete)
Size
The "Size" setting allows the user to select the ROI. The user can use the drop down list to choose pre-selected sizes or click on the box to type in custom settings.
Click on the "Size" drop down box and select predetermined required region of interest or click on the box with the ellipsis and enter size and location selection
Image Capture
Click on "File Name" "Browse" drop down box and select the site to which the image will be saved
Click on "File Format" drop down box and select the format the image will be saved as (if AVI is selected enter the number of frames in the "No of Frames" box
Click on box provided to select "Capture Full Frame", "Capture Full Resolution", "Increment File Name After Capture", or "Preview Image After Capture" as desired/required
Click on "Capture" to take an image!
