SONOPLOT MICROPLOTTER Proto, Manual

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Near the top of this dialog is an option to Automatically adjust light sensitivity . If
selected, the software will attempt to analyze the image coming from the camera and adjust the
gain, brightness, and exposure settings of the camera to produce an optimal picture under
variable lighting conditions.
If this setting is turned off, the camera settings dialog will look similar to the following:
The settings that can be controlled include:
• Gain - The CCD’s gain setting controls the degree of amplification of the video input. A high
gain is necessary to see poorly lit objects, but will introduce camera noise. As stated above, this
should be used with Exposure to tune the camera input for different lighting conditions.
•
Brightness - The overall brightness of the camera image, too high and it can reduce the
contrast of the image, too low and the image may be too dark to see.
•
Exposure - A value representing the exposure time of the camera CCD, with higher values
allowing for the imaging of even dark scenes. This is the primary setting, along with Gain, that
needs to be changed with lighting conditions.
•
Gamma - The gamma provides a nonlinear adjustment of the image, mainly enhancing the
contrast. This setting does not cause a significant change on newer camera models shipping
with Microplotters.
•
Sharpness - The sharpness of the image can be modified, with high sharpness values
showing clear edges but also amplifying CCD noise and low values blurring the overall picture.
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