Fire-I Camera Properties¶

The Camera Property Pages dialog is displayed when the Camera Properties item is selected.

It is part of the Unibrain Fire-i Camera Driver and lets you manipulate the exposure, color and basic controls of the camera as well as read and write from arbitrary camera registers.

Camera Info

The Camera Info page lets you perform 1394 asynchronous reads and writes to an arbitrary offset in the camera 1394 address space.

In order to perform a read operation you can specify the 1394 offset you want to perform a read from and the number of quadlets to read. Pressing enter will perform the operation and display the results on a list box below.

In order to perform a write operation you can directly change the hex value of the respective offset, pressing the F2 button over the value. In the following example we are about to change the value of offset 0xF0F00600.

Below is a screenshot of the Camera Info page:

Exposure Properties

The Exposure Properties page lets you control the exposure features of your camera:

Exposure Automatic control of the camera sensitivity.

Also called AE. Higher exposure increases the difference between dark and bright parts of the picture.

Exposure control is a combined effect of iris and gain controls using an internal law.

It supersedes the manually gain and iris controls to achieve automatically an average picture level according to the cursor position.

There is no influence on color.

Shutter Manual reduction of the sensor integration time to a sub-value of the frame period.

Used to reduce camera sensitivity in high light conditions, to reduce picture blur for fast moving subjects, and to match camera integration time to pulsed light sources (fluo) in order to avoid flickering.

Gain Manual exposure control by action on the video signal electronic amplification.

It cancels automatic exposure operation and works combined with iris control. Increasing exposure by gain adds noise to the picture. There is no influence on color.

Iris Manual exposure control by action on the lens diaphragm.

It cancels automatic exposure operation and works combined with gain control. Increasing exposure by iris reduces the depth of field of the picture. There is no influence on colour.

Below is a screenshot of the Exposure Properties page:

Procedure

Use this check box in order to turn a feature on or off.

Use this slidder in order to change the current value of a feature when it is in relative control mode.

Use this edit box in order to type in value when the feature is in absolute value control mode.

The value should be entered in the units described right next to the edit control.

Use a . for decimal numbers and hit enter in order for the value to be written to the camera.

For example the shutter value is usually in seconds so if you would like to set the shutter to 100 ms you should type 0.1 and hit enter.

The edit box will then write the value to the camera and it will update its description to 100 ms which is more readable by the user.

Use this check box to set the feature in auto or manual mode.

When checked the feature is on auto mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in absolute or relative mode.

When checked the feature is on absolute value control mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in software absolute conversion mode.

When checked the Fire-i software will convert the relative values read by the camera to more meaningful and user readable absolute values.

Use this push button in order to trigger a one push calibration of the feature.

Color Properties

The Color Properties page lets you control the color features of your camera:

U/B Yellow and Blue Color adjustment.

V/R Red and Green Color adjustment.

Hue Manual adjustment of the global shift of the colors tints. There is no influence on white balance, saturation, or sensitivity.

Saturation Manual adjustment of the color/black & white ratio. There is no influence on white balance, hue, or sensitivity.

Below is a screenshot of the Color Properties page:

Procedure

Use this check box in order to turn a feature on or off.

Use this slider in order to change the current value of a feature when it is in relative control mode.

Use this edit box in order to type in value when the feature is in absolute value control mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in auto or manual mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in absolute or relative mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in software absolute conversion mode.

Use this push button in order to trigger a one push calibration of the feature.

Basic Properties

The Basic Properties page lets you control the basic features of your camera:

Focus Adjustment of the lens to the subject distance.

The distance interval where the picture is still in focus, before and after the subject is called «depth of field».

Depth of field is increased by closing the lens iris.

Zoom Optical magnification control of the lens.

Brightness Constant amount of luminance electronically added to each pixel.

Increasing brightness makes dark and bright parts of the picture become brighter, but luminance difference between dark and bright parts stay identical.

Used mostly to achieve good rendering of the dark parts of the picture: black must be as dark as possible, but they should be a visible difference between black and dark grey.

There is no influence on color.

Sharpness Control of the image sharpness.

Gamma Manual adjustment of the camera internal correction law for monitor display.

Law is y = x; choose y = 0.45 for normal visual use, or adjust it according to your monitor.

Choice of y = 1, also called «gamma OFF» is intended for linear camera output.

Gamma is used to extend the image dynamic range

Below is a screenshot of the Basic Properties page:

Procedure

Use this check box in order to turn a feature on or off.

Use this slider in order to change the current value of a feature when it is in relative control mode.

Use this edit box in order to type in value when the feature is in absolute value control mode. The value should be entered in the units described right next to the edit control. Use a . for decimal numbers and hit enter in order for the value to be written to the camera. For example the shutter value is usually in seconds so if you would like to set the shutter to 100 ms you should type 0.1 and hit enter. The edit box will then write the value to the camera and it will update its description to 100 ms which is more readable by the user.

Use this check box to set the feature in auto or manual mode. When checked the feature is on auto mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in absolute or relative mode. When checked the feature is on absolute value control mode.

Use this check box to set the feature in software absolute conversion mode.

Use this push button in order to trigger a one push calibration of the feature.