The Preview panel displays live images from the camera. As soon as Pixelink Capture starts, the camera connected to the system will start streaming. If there are multiple cameras connected to the system, then a random camera from the Camera tray will start streaming.


The preview panel in Pixelink Capture has been designed with certain functionalities which allow you to control the camera directly from the Preview Panel.



The buttons in the preview window are shown in the snapshot above. The functions of the buttons have been described below.


Aspect Ratio



Aspect Ratio has been implemented to give you more control over zooming and panning. By default, the Aspect Ratio is always set to Fill. In Fill Mode, the preview will always fit to Preview Panel while maintaining its aspect ratio. If the Preview cannot fill up the canvas, then it will pad up the background with black shades.

The dropdown list can be used to change to different preset zoom percentages, and a zoom percentage of 100% will represent 1:1 pixel mapping. So if the resolution from the camera is 4608x3288, then this size will be portrayed onto the canvas. This may mean that the new preview size will not fit onto the canvas, as seen in the snapshot below.



This is where the horizontal and vertical scrollbars come into play. The size of the scroll bars give the user an idea on how much they can pan around the image. The user will be able to pan around the entire image using these scrollbars.


Zoom in and Zoom out



These buttons allow you to Zoom on a live image from the camera. The scroll wheel can also be used to control the zoom while the cursor is over the preview window. 

Please note that Zoom in and Zoom out buttons will be grayed out in Fill Mode.


ROI dropdown:



Use this dropdown to select from preset ROI sizes. The maximum resolution varies across different camera line.


Full Screen



Click on this button to display a live preview that covers the entire size of your display monitor. The Full Screen will always be portrayed on the primary monitor.

Hit the Esc button on your keyboard to exit this mode.



Info



Clicking on this button will display an info box on the preview window. This info box will update live Frame Rate, Exposure, Saturation and Gain values on the preview. Clicking on the info button again will remove the Info box from Preview. On supported cameras the info box will also display certain camera events:



Possible events are:

    "Hardware Trigger Rising Edge"

    "Hardware Trigger Falling Edge"

    "GPI Rising Edge"

    "GPI Falling Edge"

    "Hardware Trigger Missed"

    "PTP Synchronized to Master Clock"

    "PTP Lost Synchronization from Master Clock"


Settings



Click on this button to remove or display the Settings panel.


Play and Pause



By default the camera will always be streaming, hence the Play button will be greyed out. Use the Stop button at any time to stop the Preview.



Histogram



Clicking on this button will display the Histogram Panel. To turn off the Histogram Panel, click on this button again.


Image Capture



Click this button to capture an image. Image capture settings can be changed from the Capture Tab.


Video Capture



Click this button to start capturing video. Video capture settings can be changed from the Video Capture Tab.