button. The default value is 1 meaning that series capture mode is inactive. The ‘
Min.
interval for series (s)
’ lets you set the time interval between captures in a series. It
therefore has no effect if you are not in series capture mode. Using these settings allows
you to capture a time lapse sequence of images. Each image in the series may be a multi-
frame average according to your chosen value for ‘Frame averaging (number of frames)’.
The interval is called the ‘Min.’ (minimum) interval because the actual interval will be
determined by how long the program needs to wait to capture each image in the series.
This may be significantly more than 1 second if you are capturing high resolution images
in the dark and if you are using multi-frame averaging for each image.
When capturing a series, a log file is automatically generated in the current working
directory called ‘Series_root.txt’ where ‘root’ will be replaced by whatever string you
entered for the ‘File name root for saved images’ setting. This log will show the date and
time of the beginning and end of the capture series, the names of the images captured
and the actual interval (in seconds) between each frame (the time that elapsed since the
last frame was captured to the time the current frame is captured) and the reason for
termination of the series.
When capturing a series the label on the ‘Save Image’ button will change to ‘
Cancel
Series
’ (figure 6.4, right). Pressing this during a series capture will have the effect of
cancelling the current multi-frame average sequence (if multi-frame averaging for each
image in the series is being done) similar to clicking the ‘Cancel Averaging’ button AND
ALSO it will terminate the series such that after the current image has completed being
saved, no more images in the series will be started and the ‘Save Image’ button will return
to its normal appearance.
The ‘
JPEG save quality
’ setting has been described above in the ‘JPEG section of
‘Format to save the image files to disk as’.
The ‘
YUYV conversion gain
’ and ‘
YUYV conversion bias
’ settings are floating point
numbers which represent the gain and bias used in converting the raw YUYV values from
the camera’s YUYV stream into RGB values for further processing in the program.
The ‘
Delay first capture by (s)
’ setting allows you to set a count-down timer for delayed
activation of the ‘Save Image’ button action. When you click the ‘Save Image’ button, this
number of seconds will pass before the effect takes place – whether that is to capture a
single frame, a multi-frame average or a series. The countdown delay only occurs for the
first activation after you click the ‘Save Image’ button so, in the case of a series, there is
no countdown delay for subsequent images in the series and there is no countdown delay
for every frame in a multi-frame average. During the delay the button label will change to a
live count down timer (see figure 6.5, right) and if you left click the button while this count
down timer is in progress you will abort the count down as well as the image capture
event. This facility is provided because if you are going to do a long capture series or
multi-frame average then you may want some time to get away from the scope before the
capture starts to avoid any vibrations from you moving around or out of the room being
picked up in the capture. As another example you can set the delay for several days if you
want the capture to start at a quiet period when no one is around and there is minimal
traffic (e.g. on a weekend night in a lab) again to minimise contamination by vibrations.
Another example would be that you want to capture in the dark so you need some time to
switch off the monitor and other lights after you click ‘Save Image’.
OptArc AF51 Camera Page 78 of 99 User Guide v1.02
