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Leica DFC Series, Manual

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10

Leica DFC Cameras – Image Acquisition Guide

Introduction

Leica DFC Cameras are controlled by Leica DFC Twain
camera software. Leica DFC Twain supports image
acquisition under Leica LAS, Leica IM and Leica QWin
and image editors such as Imaging ®, Photoshop ®
and Paint Shop Pro ®.
The information provided in this Leica DFC Camera
Acquisition Manual is subject to change without
notification and does not present Leica Microsystems

(Switzerland) Ltd with any binding commitments. The
software described here is a licensed product, and may
be used only in accordance with the conditions as
defined in the license agreement.
Information about DC180 – 480 and DC500 cameras can
be found in the Leica DC Manual.

Summary of Contents for DFC Series

Page 1: ...Leica DFC Cameras Image Acquisition ...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...a Microsystems Switzerland Ltd 2006 No part of this publication may be reproduced transmitted transcribed stored in any retrieval system or translated into any human or computer language by any means or in any form without the prior written permission of Leica Microsystems Switzerland Ltd Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation FireWire and the F...

Page 4: ...spect of this manual or our manuals in general please send emails to LMIS manuals leica microsystems com Alternatively send a fax to 44 1223 412526 or write to Manual Feedback Marketing Department Leica Microsystems Cambridge Ltd PO Box 80 515 Coldhams Lane Cambridge CB1 3YZ United Kingdom Please quote the title part number and date of the manual These can be found on the previous page ...

Page 5: ...meras 18 Pseudo Color Mono cameras 19 Histogram 19 Selecting the Active Camera 25 Managing Configurations 26 Captured Image Controls 29 Resolution 30 White Balance 30 Shading Correction 32 Color Depth 36 Image Type 37 Pseudo RGB 38 Scaling 39 Sharpen 40 Crop to ROI 41 Live Image Controls 43 Resolution 43 Mode 45 Over Under Exposure 46 Find Focus 47 Zoom Focus 48 Spot Exposure 49 Check Color 50 App...

Page 6: ...p Vertical 53 Color Circle Always Visible 54 Close after acquire 54 About 55 Hidden Service Controls 56 Color Calibration 56 High Sensitivity Binning 58 Show All Resolutions 59 Show Frame Rates 59 Crosshair Indicator 60 Separate Gain Values visible with IC 3D camera only 60 Chip Size 61 Cooling 61 ...

Page 7: ...s information that must be read and observed Failure to do so may lead to malfunction of or damage to the equipment Useful Information This symbol indicates additional information or explanation Action This symbol within the text indicates that certain actions must be carried out ...

Page 8: ...hotoshop and Paint Shop Pro The information provided in this Leica DFC Camera Acquisition Manual is subject to change without notification and does not present Leica Microsystems Switzerland Ltd with any binding commitments The software described here is a licensed product and may be used only in accordance with the conditions as defined in the license agreement Information about DC180 480 and DC5...

Page 9: ...ctive camera name appears in the DFC Twain title bar at the top The Control Panel handles all the operations of the camera Some controls are also available within the Live Image area The basic camera functions are contained in the upper section of the control panel These include controls for exposure color contrast and image acquisition The live image histograms showing the light intensity across ...

Page 10: ...ze color cropping shading sharpening and focusing can be controlled Control Panel Structure The individual functions of DFC Twain are accessible as branch entries in a tree structure The main branches Captured Image Live Image Extra are opened closed by left clicking or double clicking or Control Panel branches collapsed Captured Image branch expanded ...

Page 11: ...d branch control Captured image sub menu to the resolution size Live Image Controls These control elements may be selected from a context menu after drawing a rectangle within the live image area with the mouse left click and drag Each function has its own rectangle color and is active until switched off again in the control panel This means there may be more than one colored rectangle within the ...

Page 12: ...gles can be changed at any time Left click on the colored rectangle to activate it When active the rectangle assumes a dotted line Move the rectangle to any position by left click and dragging the dotted line Resize the rectangle by left clicking on one of the black square dots around it and dragging ...

Page 13: ...Controls in the upper control panel are Acquire button for image acquisition Auto White Balance button Exposure time slider Auto Exposure button Gain slider Color Saturation slider Color cameras Pseudo Color slider Mono cameras Histogram Display Active Camera menu Configuration menu ...

Page 14: ...a progress bar If Close after Acquire is checked DFC Twain will close after acquisition otherwise the system is ready for the next image acquisition If Close after Acquire is checked DFC Twain and the camera will take the same time to reinitialize as if from the start You can also make a temporary acquisition by pressing the F4 key The acquired image will be located in your local Temp folder with ...

Page 15: ... filter is in the illumination path At camera start up this function is always off See also White Balance in the Captured Image section Exposure Automatic DFC Twain uses intelligent automated systems to analyze the current light conditions and control exposure time image grain contrast and gamma values to optimize the resultant image To activate Automatic Exposure left click When automatic exposur...

Page 16: ... values because there is a greater noise content When Automatic Exposure is active Gain is disabled The default value is 1 0x IC 3D camera only The gain for the IC 3D sensors can be controlled independently or locked together The default is locked together but this can be changed in the hidden menu in Extra Separate Gain Values Color Saturation Color cameras When viewing a sample through an eyepie...

Page 17: ...microscope it is often useful to match the color seen through the eye piece to the image displayed by the camera The image can be adjusted for all colors in the visible spectrum 380 780 nm The minimum possible grey level is black and the maximum possible grey level is the selected color not white To adjust the color first check the Pseudo RGB check box in Captured Image The Color Saturation slider...

Page 18: ...owing values for black white levels 0 100 and gamma 0 60 Separate histograms for red green and blue channels are available eg green channel histogram Combined histogram showing red green and blue channels How the histogram is displayed and what contrast values are visible and applied are available by right clicking in the histogram area Check uncheck the required settings ...

Page 19: ...lt value for Black is 0 White is 100 and Gamma is 0 60 To display the values for Gamma and Black White levels choose Show Values and to display the Gamma Curve choose Show Gamma Curve To type manually precise values for all the basic controls choose Edit Values Image Contrast Black White Levels To obtain the best image the contrast indicators black left and white right should be aligned with the l...

Page 20: ...htening of these areas A gamma value of 1 0 is set when the gamma indicator is exactly between the two contrast indicators Moving it to the left reduces the gamma value and the curve rises at the left end moving it to the right increases the gamma value and the curve slopes upwards more gradually Auto Gamma calculates an optimum gamma value from the composition of the current brightness distributi...

Page 21: ... so that it becomes impossible to separate them The black and white levels do not overlap completely If this happens click ctrl mouse to grab the gamma indicator and move as before You can also select each indicator by pressing the space bar once at a time until the indicator you require becomes active and shows as Edit Values The following panel will allow entries for exposure or brightness if au...

Page 22: ...ed but keep this panel open or click OK to close it Be aware that the range of some of these values is not linear and will round up or down in practice You can also open this panel by right clicking in the basic function area of the upper control panel indicated by the red outline below ...

Page 23: ...fore disconnecting a camera some versions of Windows may request that you go through the Safely Remove Hardware Wizard which you can do via the icon on the Taskbar DFC Twain will automatically initialize a newly connected camera and display a live image If another camera is already connected the new camera is added to the list but DFC Twain will still display the live image of the current camera B...

Page 24: ...item is only visible when using the IC 3D camera The default is the left sensor L Select L for the left sensor and R for the right Managing Configurations Saving and deleting configurations Once you have defined the best camera settings for your environment you can save and retrieve them at any time This feature is not only useful for different working and lighting conditions but also creates repr...

Page 25: ...re no saved configurations Last used will be displayed as the current configuration When starting DFC Twain again the camera will open with the configuration that was used prior to closing and will show Last used even though it may be a saved configuration Select a saved configuration of your choice if in doubt Saved configuration files are located in your computer s Documents and Settings All Use...

Page 26: ...ion is valid for any camera of the same model This means that you can create a configuration with one Leica DFC280 and load it using another Leica DFC280 However you cannot load a configuration created on a Leica DFC280 for use with a Leica DFC300FX for example ...

Page 27: ... and captured images are functionally separate and therefore the live image is not always identical to the captured image This is useful when a different live image mode offers a faster refresh rate than the captured image mode or when you always capture in one mode Also not all functions eg involving ROI are available in some modes Properties of the captured image ...

Page 28: ...ype of mode available depends on the camera model White Balance Refer also to the previous section on Auto White Balance In order to define the White Balance over a region of interest ROI left click and drag the mouse to draw the area in the live image Release the mouse and select White Balance Live image with ROI for white balance The live image will display the corrected color ...

Page 29: ...saved White Balance entries by clicking on the appropriate name Save Delete Use this to save the current white balance settings under a name for retrieval or deletion at any time Saved color files are located in your computer s Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Leica DFC280 DFC480 folder These files are accessible by all camera users Saving a white balance White balance is not poss...

Page 30: ...should execute another white balance operation Shading Correction The brightness distribution over the whole image area is seldom homogeneous because of the lighting optics camera adapter etc and Shading Correction corrects this unevenness To create a perfectly corrected homogeneous image a white image ie an image of the exposure light only and no subject is taken as reference and calculated into ...

Page 31: ...ny under or over exposed areas in the image Change exposure or illumination brightness if necessary Press Start Follow the onscreen instructions to set the white reference The window will freeze until shading references for all image resolutions are complete this may take a few minutes ...

Page 32: ...0 folder These files are accessible by all camera users You can now choose and activate the shading correction you have just created from the Shading menu or record further shading references Activate shading correction Image acquisition with shading correction takes a little longer than normal acquisition as the shading references must be calculated into the final image Shading corrections become...

Page 33: ... any of these parameters Image needs shading correction to correct fall off at the corners Improved by applying shading correction You can also apply the shading correction to the live image by Check Live Image Apply Shading Correction or select Proof mode in the live image section ...

Page 34: ...isible quality depends on factors such as the image editor software your monitor and size displayed DFC Twain and Leica DFC cameras can acquire images in 8 bits or 16 bits However only HQ resolution modes allow image acquisition in 16 bits Color depth selection Only a few image file formats such as TIFF permit storage higher than 8 bits B W or 24 bits color JPEG compressed or BMP and other file fo...

Page 35: ...es not detect whether or not the image editor can handle higher color depths correctly Image Type Image Type determines whether the image is acquired as a grayscale monochrome or B W or a color image Selection of image type Image Size Image resolution is the first item in Captured Image and the available list depends on the camera model Selection of the image resolution ...

Page 36: ...tivity but at a smaller image size This technique is called binning and in this mode data transfer is faster However some color information is lost and the size of the image is limited With short exposure times the live image refresh rate can be doubled by activating binning Pseudo RGB Monochrome cameras only Pseudo RGB allows a monochrome camera to display false color for live and captured images...

Page 37: ...educed edge artifacts or jaggies most noticeable on diagonal or curved edges or lines Please note that scaling by 1 50 enlarges both the width and the height of an image by 50 An image size of 4 MB for example will become approximately 9 MB 1 00 represents a 1 1 image with no scaling Select Scaling and choose either 1 00 for a normal 1 1 image or 1 50 for an enlarged image ...

Page 38: ...e focusing difficult Sharpened pictures can offer crisper focusing and viewing Activate Sharpen by right clicking on Sharpen and selecting the appropriate level of sharpness The effects of sharpening are not visible in the live image but only in the captured image unsharpened image the same image with sharpening ...

Page 39: ...e area of your choice in height and width Select ROI Activate the Crop to ROI by the check box on the control panel The displayed green rectangle on the live image will be the area to be acquired ROI for image acquisition There are several ways of selecting the size and position of the Crop window Manual ROI Setting Select Set Rectangle ...

Page 40: ... updated automatically on the live image Drawing ROI on the Live Image The Crop area may also be drawn directly on the live image using the mouse Click on the frame of the Crop area this marks it so that it can be moved or Draw a new rectangle at the position required using the mouse and select Region of Interest Draw new ROI using mouse on the live image ...

Page 41: ...aming etc The quality of the live image display is heavily dependent on each camera s specification Resolution As with the Captured Image Live Image resolution modes include the size and whether the image is high quality binned or a partial image Some resolution modes offer color or monochrome binning sub sampling high low bit depth and color separation Some cameras may offer live image formats th...

Page 42: ... formats for live and or for captured images Center Scan Modes display only the center areas of the image for better focusing Progressive Modes Color Progressive modes Leica DFC480 300FX and 320 cameras display live images without edge artifacts Mono Progressive modes only display pixels of a certain color eg Progressive Red discards all green and blue pixels and combines the remaining red pixels ...

Page 43: ...ing etc Fullscreen Displays the live image in fullscreen on the monitor which can also be activated by pressing the F5 key Press ESC or F5 to return to Standard mode 1 1 Pan The live image displayed at 1 1 is not fit to window It remains the same resolution selected even when the window is resized Navigate around the live image using scroll bars or left click and drag within the live image window ...

Page 44: ...unction assists in adjusting the lighting conditions to the dynamic range for the camera Check Uncheck Under Over exposure or Right click Under Over exposure and select on off In the histogram the region beyond the black level appears pale blue and the region beyond the white level appears pale red Under exposed areas of the live image appear blue and over exposed areas appear red ...

Page 45: ...size of the focus measuring area by drawing an ROI and select Find Focus The focus is displayed in the form of a yellow vertical bar the better the focus within the ROI the higher the mark in the bar A maximum level indicator helps you return to an optimum focus previously established Check uncheck Find Focus in the Control Panel or set the ROI by right clicking Find Focus and choose Set Rectangle...

Page 46: ...lable only in certain modes Draw a region and select Zoom Focus Set the best focus inside the region Uncheck Zoom Focus to return to normal viewing or left click inside the Zoom Focus ROI or right click Zoom Focus and select on off Like Find Focus Zoom Focus will activate a yellow focus bar Within the ROI the image is displayed at full resolution 1 1 Zoom Focus shares the same ROI as Find Focus bu...

Page 47: ... defined region Draw a region and select Spot Exposure Note that if you use Spot Exposure and move the specimen the exposure may not be appropriate Check uncheck Spot Exposure to activate or reselect or stop or click the Auto Exposure button at the top of the Control Panel to stop You can set the ROI by right clicking Spot Exposure and selecting Set Rectangle type the values for position and size ...

Page 48: ...ion of the image may be necessary after a white balance in order to compensate for any color shift From the control panel Check uncheck Check Color to activate the Color Correction Wheel and the measuring rectangle Color fine tuning after white balance Inside the Color Wheel drag the small square to a color value and observe the small dot which represents the current color within the ROI ...

Page 49: ...Check Color and selecting Set Color Values which will open the following panel The Color Wheel can freely float anywhere in the screen area while DFC Twain is active On the Live Image Adjust the ROI for color fine tuning by drawing a rectangle in the live image and select Check Color Measuring area for color fine tuning ...

Page 50: ...h is selected in the Captured Image to the Live Image This is useful to see if the image is correctly adjusted Check Uncheck Apply Shading Correction or Right click Apply Shading Correction and select on off Live Sharpening Check Uncheck Live Sharpening to apply the sharpening value selected in Sharpen to the live image ...

Page 51: ... may not be necessary and the live image can be switched off allowing the main computer resources to be allocated to the software running in the foreground Activate or deactivate by left clicking Always Live or right click Always Live and select on off Flip Horizontal Flip Vertical Depending on the installation conditions it may not be possible to connect the camera to a microscope in a way that r...

Page 52: ...ick Color Circle Always Visible to activate or deactivate this function or right click Color Circle Always Visible and select on off Close after acquire This function defines whether or not DFC Twain closes automatically after an image is acquired This may be useful for example if you would like to add database information for the image immediately after acquisition To activate or deactivate this ...

Page 53: ...Leica DFC Cameras Image Acquisition Guide 55 right click Close After Acquire and select on off About Left click About to display version and language information about DFC Twain ...

Page 54: ...ey also switch on and off cooling on certain cameras and allow a shortened list of resolutions for the standard user These functions should only be accessible to trained personnel Access to these functions is available by pressing the CTRL SHIFT keys and simultaneously right clicking on Extra Select from the hidden function menu Color Calibration Color Calibration allows perfect color tuning of yo...

Page 55: ...ure so that no color pads are overexposed but a manual white balance is not necessary as this is incorporated Left click and drag to draw the calibration template over the live image Cover all 24 color fields precisely if they are not covered redraw the template and click Color Calibration Once the color calibration has completed name the setting and save it This setting is now available in the Ca...

Page 56: ...ther hence increasing the apparent sensitivity of the camera The intensity brightness of the image is greater than if binning were not used In order to keep the resulting image similar to the original as if it were not binned we can adjust the brightness with High Sensitivity Binning without increasing image noise This option is available only if the live or captured image is binned Check High Sen...

Page 57: ...ct whether to display all modes e g for the advanced user or a restricted set of modes e g for the standard user Check Show All Resolutions to display all modes Uncheck to display a shorter standard list of modes Show Frame Rates The speed at which the live image display is refreshed is hidden by default Check Show Frame Rates to display the frames second ...

Page 58: ... Separate Gain Values visible with IC 3D camera only Gain can be controlled for each of the two sensors in the IC 3D and by default they are locked together Check Separate Gain Values to adjust the gain for each sensor independently or uncheck to lock them together Be aware that if Separate Gain Values is checked and the gain values are different the image will be affected differently when switchi...

Page 59: ...ot use this information itself However for applications such as Leica IM the size of the sensor is required to calculate the calibration of the image in conjunction with the microscope optics data Check Chip Size to display chip sensor information Cooling Check Uncheck Cooling to switch cooling on or off for those cooled cameras which support this feature Not all cooled cameras support it ...

Page 60: ...62 Leica DFC Cameras Image Acquisition Guide ...

Page 61: ...ems CH 9435 Heerbrugg Switzerland Email DI Support leica microsystems com Website www leica microsystems com Illustrations descriptions and technical data are not binding and may be changed without notice Leica Microsystems Switzerland Ltd CH 9435 Heerbrugg 2006 ...

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