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MV-D752-28 User’s Manual
REV: 1.0
Page 20/61
7
Variation of the amplification
The MV-D752-28 camera contains several possibilities for amplifying the video signal. On
the one hand the CMOS sensor can be operated in skim mode, corresponding to a non-
linear amplification. In this mode low intensities are amplified more strongly than high
intensities (small signal amplification). The resulting response is similar to a gamma
correction. Fig. 10 shows an example of sensor response for a fixed skim voltage in
comparison with the linear response of the sensor. The right hand figure represents a
zoom of the lower intensity region. The small signal amplification is the relation between
the sensor output voltages of both modes at constant low illumination. The skim voltage
can be varied via DAC channel 3 in the voltage range 0 – 4V (see Appendix E). An
unsuitable choice of parameters can lead to image lag with high contrast scenes,
resulting in smearing of the image and reduced image quality. A skim voltage of 1.4V,
corresponding to a small signal amplification of about 2, turns out to be a reasonable
value in practice.
In Skim mode, please note:
Exposure time <10ms; LinLog voltage < 1V. To
increase the shutter efficiency a LinLog value of 25 should be used!
Furthermore,
when using this mode constant frame time the frame time should be set to a value that
allows the sensor a reset time of at least 10
µ
s.
Fig. 10: Sensor response in Skim mode compared with linear response
On the other hand, it is possible to switch the amplification of the video amplifier of the
sensor module between amplification factors 1 and 4 by activating bit 7 register 7. The
offset correction for the amplifier must then be adjusted. If option EN_TOGGLE bit 4
register 6 is activated, the switch occurs automatically. In this case switching occurs
between two preset offset values. If the automatic offset correction is deactivated, the
user is responsible for suitably adjusting the correction. This is achieved for every
operating mode by adjusting the video signal offset via DAC channel 5 (see Appendix E).
Moreover, in the 8-bit output mode of the camera, digital amplification factors 2 and 4
can be set using bit shift operations. For this purpose, the two LUTs have been factory
pre-programmed (see Appendix B). It is important to note that, when using these LUTs
with a maximum gray level value of 255, the LinLog
TM
modes perform a compression of
the upper gray level values and the contrast improvement cannot be attained with the
pre-programmed LUTs. By suitably adjusting the LUTs, non-linear responses can be
realized, allowing the gray level range of interest to be spread to suit the application.
Moreover, response ranges of the LinLog
TM
modes can also be transferred to the 8-bit
output resolution.