Video Tool Panels: Camera Settings

Increase the exposure by moving the slider to the right; decrease the exposure by sliding to the left. You can also use the spinner buttons (arrows) to decrease or increase exposure.

Check the Automatic checkbox to set an automatic exposure-time based on the percent luminance that will be displayed in the box to the right.

• 70% luminance is a good default value to try.

Use the Gain slider to increase or decrease the signal power from the camera. As you increase gain, more noise is introduced into the image.

Not available for cameras that do not support gain.

The Binning option reduces the number of pixels from the camera.

• A value of 1 means no binning.
• A value of 2 means that the number of pixels is divided by 2 (every two pixels are combined into one).

The amplitude increases by a factor of 2, but the resolution decreases by a factor of 2.

The offset button allows you to control the brightness of the image.

Only applies to color cameras.

A white balance adjustment is an alternative to a manual adjustment using the microscope's amplitude knob.

When the light bulb on a microscope is turned on, it heats up, and this affects the color of your image. Many microscopes have an indicator on their amplitude knobs that indicate at what light bulb amplitude the colors in the image look the most natural.

With digital cameras, it is possible to perform a white balance in the software instead of using the manual amplitude setting of the light bulb.

If these software-based white-balancing techniques seem inadequate, use the light bulb amplitude knob to determine where colors look natural. Neutral density filters on a microscope can be used to cut the amplitude of the light without affecting the color.

Only available for cameras that can switch modes.

Click this icon (Set to Mono/Set to Color) to switch between color and monochrome mode.

• Black and white icon: Indicates that the camera is in color mode
• Rainbow icon: Indicates that the camera is in monochrome mode.