Leica DFC Cameras - Leica Microsystems
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1. o Back wey l oa liken Iam H ai la a ug A r z leicaDrivers Leica FireCam Application User Manual 9 Doubleclick on the LeicaDrivers disk to start the installation Two yellow boxes representing the software packages are displayed __LescaDrivars dhe LEME yale If you are using Mac OSX 10 1 double click on the package LeicaDriversForOS10 1 pkg If you are using Mac OSX 10 2 or later double click on the package Leica DriversForOS10 2 pkg To start the installation you have to enter the administration password to make changes to your harddisk Click the lock to allow such changes O Click the lock to make changes Now enter the password and click on OK Authenticate You need an administrator namo and password fe phrase to make changes im installer Name admin Password or phrase Cancel Leica FireCam Application User Manual 10 After installation of the Leica software you should reboot the computer Open the FireCam application by double clicking the application icon Meical Leica FireCam The Firecam application starts and displays its user interface and its corresponding menu bar id u i Lace F nen Preto Armate Erwe ei a lepri Upik idee bdl di tr Ce Cata le image Mic Lama vata rt ine questa a Loca Ma iy Eres Pls ee TT atin te foe pi ar nto eh P Eaua ee ae _ _ _ rr i If you restart the2. Leica DFC Cameras FireCam Application Seica MICROSYSTEMS Table of Contents Table of Contents Symbols Introduction Installation Menu Bar Setup Panel Acquire Panel Browse Panel Power User Features Leica FireCam Application User Manual 3 Nn nr KB W 12 15 28 54 57 Symbols A A Warning This symbol indicates especially important information that if not observed can lead to malfunctional disturbances or and damage to the instruments Useful Information This symbol indicates additional information or explanations that intend to provide clarity understanding Action This symbol within the text indicates that certain operations actions must be carried out Leica FireCam Application User Manual 4 Introduction Dear Customer We are very pleased that you have chosen to purchase one of our Leica imaging products The Leica FireCam application is a software that runs on Macintosh computers to operate all Leica firewire cameras The information provided in this Leica DFC Camera Manual is subject to change without notification and does not present Leica Microsystems Ltd with any binding commitments The software described here is a licensed product and may be used only in accordance with the conditions as defined in the license agreement The user interface is designed such that the essential functions for controlling all supported cameras can be reached through the same user inte
3. Fo back Cmime Active Cooling you can turn off the active cooling of the DFC camera in case you need to save battery power on In the output options panel you can select some a Macintosh Powerbook or iBook In any other file options The FireCam application comes with a case you should not turn off the active cooling of so called autoname feature that predefines the the camera name of an image before you take it With this feature you don t have to care about filenames during a taking session Select the name and the starting number and start acquiring one image after the other In the case above they will be called Shading Correction This will be available in the future Image001 tif Image002 tif Image003 tif etc At any time you can override the selected filename during Live Video Preview before taking the the next image see also Acquire Panel Description Filename Leica MZ16 DC500 001 4shoti f de Acquire Leica FireCam Application User Manual 23 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 24 Bitdepth After saving Depending on the camera type an image can be acquired and saved at various color or grayscale In the output selection you can also select what to resolutions Most Leica cameras offer a color depth do after taking the image of more than 8 bits per color However when saving image data on your computer you must decide to store a pixel value either in 8 bits 1 Byte mg After saving or in
4. User Manual 14 If the attached camera is not recognized an error Setup Panel dialog is displayed Once you have installed the camera you must Not Connected configure the camera to the system Did you select the correct camera model Please also check whether the Firewire cable is Default Image Info Select additonal image info plugged in gt Input Options Select the camera gt Output Options Select file options Inout Options Do a hotplug of the camera unplug and reconnect p p the firewire cable You may also try to switch to the VC100 camera for a moment and return to the Input Ciptions Leica camera again If you are still not able to Please selt y aiea DESDO using You may also set any options connect quit the application and restart and or Mar ans Leica DECIDO F reboot the computer Leka DFC350 F k i i Camera Leta VOLO Firmware Update If the FireCam software detects that the firmware of the camera needs to be updated a dialog box is Type Grayscale Bass Gi displayed Bu a f X Leica DFC300 F s _ ate The firmare for this camera neads to be updated Troan sepion 1 2 10 vession 148 E Cancel Choose the camera that is attached to the computer Click on the Update button to start the upload of l l the firmware or click on cancel to continue without to check the firecam application Although no real recommends to do the firmware update in order to camera is att
5. The calbration was successful Chick Sarp Lo store The ra toler calibration Do do a piezo calibration you need a piezo calibration pattern available for stereo and compound microscopes Adjust the pattern in such a way that you see approx 5 to 10 grid lines inside the circle Press continue fresa iN i me The calibrated piezo values are saved in the preferences file and also when you save a setting file later in the application It remains valid until you delete the preferences file or you load a setting with different piezo calibration values i Calibrating piezos is hardly ever needed Make sure you do the calibration correctly and use it with care Wrong piezo calibration values may lead to spoiled pictures in multishot mode Leica FireCam Application User Manual 21 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 22 Input Options DFC ees Laica Fientam Output Options cameras CEL aiea Frau E rsu piara Diegu dpross D Dafauit image Info Pois sci lab Cree fr ei e ee Tu ap eh A aay Obes char rh camera soda TS inan pria fe ES inca pier toga Dhar aes Dagu Dior ae P Orii images hiin EEL a ea ins add he Oe ca aih action m ie be g ricmmed atier an rogge has been cored Camia Leica DCF 3 herizl Me mean i Fira ia T Soros brogis im this falde L mas ith this rore LER ma thk bitdepih BM Nate Coming ik Arer zma E Do mring T Statich so reat H Opn imeri Preda Eime
6. long exposure times however the faster read out of the sensor data allowed by binning does not affect the live image refresh rate very much Hi If binning is activated the image is acquired at reduced resolution and may loose the color information Suppress while acquiring if activated stops the live image during image acquisition to speed up processing Do not activate this if you want to capture an image of your sample at a very precise moment The live video will then not turn off during processing Deep Red and deep blue pixels show sections of over under exposure in live image Flip Horizontally flips the live image left to right and right to left Flip Vertically flips the live image top to down and down to top J 1 0 195 Show Over Underexposure This function helps to find a perfect output from your image source by indicating the extent to which a part of the image is underexposed or overexposed In conjunction with the live histogram this function assists in adjusting the image source lighting conditions to values ensuring a perfect dynamic Leica FireCam Application User Manual 33 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 34 Acquire Panel Toolbox changes simply click on Auto again to calculate the l best capturing values gt If there is a need to turn on the automatic feature all the time e g when switching often between objectives or when the illumination is changing you can m
7. or sharpening are technically correct but sharpening insert parts of an image It supports however the can produce slightly crisper images and the viewer delete option in the Browse Panel to delete stored may find them more striking Images Hi The effects of sharpening are not visible in the live image but only in a 1 1 scale reproduction of the image acquired Each pixel in the image corresponds exactly to each pixel displayed on the monitor Lita EA EC a SHIGE AH The Image menu contains several important entries concerning image manipulation Most of them are also available in the context menu of the live video To open the context menu in the live video hold down the CTRL key while clicking with the mouse inside the live video see section below Image L z Flip Horizontally 2 1 representation of an unsharpened image Flip Vertically Sharpen Show Over Underexposure White Reference Flip Horizontally Vertically Flips the image horizontally or vertically Pay attention that flipping may change the orientation of the image Sharpen e e a pt ae ee The FireCam application offers a sharpening 2 1 representation of the same image with feature for the acquired images The image sharpening sharpening function is a sharpness filter that the software applies to the raw data to improve the Leica FireCam Application User Manual 13 Leica FireCam Application
8. 16 bits per color 2 Bytes Do nothing Switch to Browse _ Open image in Preview k Save images in this folder Images with sn nams TAGE If you want to continue taking images without and this bitdepth 8 Bit interruption select the first option Do nothing 7 This is the fastest way to acquire succeeding images If you want to quickly overview the captured image select the second option Switch to Browse If you like to immediately view the image in full resolution select the third option Open the image You have to select a suitable image viewing application In OS 9 and OS X an application is predefined that is part of the Macintosh operating system QuickTime Viewer or Preview Both applications are very fast and able to do some basic image manipulations like turning or saving to a different location or in another image format H Only a few image manipulation software packages such as Photoshop are able to handle color depths greater than 8 bit per color If an image is acquired with a color depth greater than that acceptable to the image handling program an error message may appear the image acquired may be ignored or the software may even crash It is not possible for the FireCam software to detect whether or not the image manipulation software can handle higher color depths correctly Of course you can also select some highly sophisticated image manipulation software like If in doubt se
9. FireCam Application anytime later the user interface will show up as when you have quit the application The size and position of the window the active control panel and all the camera settings are restored from a preferences file which is stored either in the preferences directory with OS9 x or in the directory home Library Preferences with OSX You can delete the firecam preferences file anytime in case you want to start the FireCam application with the factory default values Leica FireCam Application User Manual 11 Menu Bar As all other applications on the Mac OS the FireCam application displays a menu bar the the upper margin of the screen Leica FireCam File Edit Image RpqqaA _ _ y y The Apple menu contains some general apple menu items that are not related to the FireCam application The Leica FireCam menu contains some general menu commands for the entire application like hiding the user interface or quitting the application About FireCam This function displays information about software used and its copyright holders LEICA PIAGA Ad Leica CITERE GIT E The File menu only contains one single item called New Calling this menu items will capture an image Leica FireCam Application User Manual 12 The Edit menu is less important because overall picture impression Pictures without FireCam does not offer any options to cut out
10. Mor mWhiteLesel 65535 Ovarsaturate SOR a Posilive dl E ResetHistogram PS eS yee ee Ii SUSIo Der The preferences file saved when closing the You can save and access settings directly in the application is nothing else but a setting file FireCam software without restarting the containing all of the settings When starting the application On the hard drive setting files are application the information in the preferences file automatically saved in the setting folder within the guarantees that exactly the same settings and FireCam folder and may be organized in window positions used in the previous session are subfolders If with the Save command you resumed Leica FireCam Application User Manual 57 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 58 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 59 Illustrations descriptions technical data are not binding and may be changed without notice Leica FireCam Application User Manual 60 Leica Microsystems Ltd CH 9435 Heerbrugg Switzerland 2002 Publication no M2 398 0en Printed in Switzerland
11. ached the entire processing saving take advantage of corrected or improved firmware and displaying features of the Firecam application software inside the camera works as if a real camera is delivering images Leica DFC300 F x This process must pot ba Inte rmupted ah DO HOT PLUGIN OR UNFPLUG ANY DEVICES NOW dai Cancel Leica FireCam Application User Manual 15 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 16 If the update was successful the following dialog Macintosh Powerbook or iBook In any other case box is displayed you should not turn off the active cooling of the DC500 Leica DFC400 F Tha Himare update has camplet d To take then please a Chit TAS BH cee A Black White This will be available in the future Unplug the can f a Plu alte print again Correction Calibrate Do some calibration functions for the DC500 i Select the type of calibration you Follow the instruction displayed and restart the wish to perform application The firmware update procedure should not be displayed any more You can also detect White Reference the present version of the firmware in the Input Color Calibration Option Screen of the connected camera Piezo Calibration O Black Reference Input Options If an attached camera is recognized some camera DC500 specific setup features are displayed 1 Black Reference Calibrate Input Options Black Reference Please select the camera model you are using Y
12. ake the button always simply hold down the 3 key and click the auto button To unpress the button click it again This will turn off the automatic exposure feature The toolbox contains the most important tools as buttons The active button appears pushed in and darker in the illustration below e g the arrow tool These tools are also called mouse tools because selecting a tool changes the shape of the cursor gt Activate the option dialog box of the automatic function by pressing the ALT key and clicking on the auto button which turns into an Option button ne ROE Toolbox Auto Button Options The automatic control functions described in the RA Automatic Exposure Time Black Clip 0 5 paragraphs below essentially help to create the F Automatic tevel White Clip 0 5 best conditions for image acquisition Fl Automatic Whitebalance Any professional user will be pleased to have these functions available In most cases however k users will prefer to concentrate on the image content rather than the image acquisition technique Intelligent automated systems help you to do this Select the options that should be active when you They analyze the current light conditions and click on the Auto button Leica recommends to control the image source in such a way that the check only the first option Automatic Exposure resulting image is optimized for you These Time automated systems take into considerati
13. c images as it is the case for example in fluorescent mode Leica FireCam Application User Manual 37 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 38 i Live image with single mouse click for white balance In order to define the region of interest ROI for the white balance just draw a rectangle window using the mouse with the mouse button depressed As soon as you release the mouse button the white balance is calculated for the selected rectangle and applied to the entire image dl Live image with ROI for white balance As mentioned before the white balance may also be applied to the complete image In this case you do not need to draw a window but only to click on Auto button You need however have selected the Automatic Whitebalance option in the Auto Options Leica FireCam Application User Manual 39 Toolbox Color Wheel Next to the eyedropper for the white balance is the icon to display the color wheel Press it to display the color wheel and click anywhere outside the color wheel to hide it again Custom This function is used for fine tuning the white balance Depending on the light conditions and the camera characteristics fine correction of the image may be necessary after a white balance to compensate for a red color shift for instance You can use the mouse to drag the small circle in the color wheel displayed towards the color balance you require Use the color circle also
14. e selected from a context menu which is activated by pressing the CTRL key and clicking with the mouse button inside the Live video Note how the mouse cursor changes its shape when you press the CTRL key Activated entries will be marked with a checkmark Reselect the entry again to turn off a specific function 5x Binning Faster Suppress while acquiring Show Over Underexposure Flip Horizontally Flip Vertically Context menu inside the Live video Help not supported at this moment greyed out Binning turns on the Binning mode thus producing faster live video Depending on the Leica FireCam Application User Manual 32 type of camera different binning modes may be range for the image source from the darkest available Binning is a special image acquisition regions to the brightest Note that you can technique in which several pixels are combined adjust the sections of under and overexposure and thus faster data download is possible by dragging the histogram controls to the left or However the color information may get lost and to the right The selection of the histogram is the quality of the live image may suffer To avoid marked in the image with corresponding colors any loss of quality turn off binning if possible showing under and overexposed regions but a slow live video frame rate may result With short exposure times the live image refresh rate can be almost doubled by activating binning With
15. ete Leica FireCam Application User Manual 55 Rename an Image To rename an image simply type another filename into the File box If the filename already exists the filename is rejected and the original filename is established File Sample003 tiff File Info Box In the File Info box some interesting file properties are displayed like image type size in pixels and storage requirements in MB info Type 165 Shot 26002060 Prels 2500 x 2060 Ste 135 ME et Description Box In the image description box any corresponding description values you entered in the acquire panel are displayed You can here add additional information to your captured images Description User John Subject section B Microscope M216 Camera BCSOO ExposureTime 40Ums Additional Remarks Leica FireCam Application User Manual 56 save a file to a folder different from the Power User Featu res recommended one it will not be displayed in the This chapter introduces you to FireCam features matching menu which are not necessary for the standard use of the software These features might however after a short practice period highly increase the efficiency of your work process Settings files may contain an optional number of FireCam settings Setting files include some or all of the adjustment possibilities in the FireCam application offered in menus and panels as well as the positio
16. f the next captured image Leica FireCam Application User Manual 52 Free Space Number of images with actual size you are able to capture until the harddisk is full There is no limitation concerning numbers of images you can manage in the FireCam application Processing Displays the number of image processing tasks in the image pipline Filename and Description If appropriate enter a new filename and a description for the next image you are going to capiure Filename Image 003 Description Medicago alfalfa lroot t s showing secondary growth The text you enter in the description box will be stored inside the captured image and is displayed in the Browse Panel when you highlight a thumbnail preview of the image see section below Leica FireCam Application User Manual 53 Browse Panel The Browse Panel offers you an overview of captured image files and a few corresponding functions It does not contain sophisticated image manipulation function or archiving features It is a small and easy to use image browse utility Lana Prec anh duo T acquire Pree Tempesti ba neha hasi t ae Fai B ied dir 12E HE Da scri pieni L Tab je perio E Pare Pin Erari ENE CeeueraT he kirg Abdierel Paria The captured images are displayed as thumbnails in a row at the bottom of the window Browse through the stored images by clicking on thumbnails with the mouse or by using the arrow key
17. ge during image acquisition In the case of incident illumination and with both stereomicroscopes and macroscopes it is possible to precisely calibrate the colors What you need is the Leica color calibration tool Art No 10 447 Calibrate 123 Follow the instruction on the screen to produce a white reference White Reference Make sure the color calibration tool can be Place a neutral white displayed completely and the layout is as in picture pang pena tt camera above row of grays in the bottom line Press start to enter the color calibration wizard A maks of the color calibration tool is displayed Calibrate Color Calibratian Piace the fdacbetn Colorcheckher under the camera and adpust tho frame to match its boundis Calibrate White Roferanco Galbrating write shaming Fasi Leica FireCam Application User Manual 19 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 20 Move and adjust the mask until if fits the calibration 4 Piezo Calibration tool The color calibration values are saved in the Calibrate preferences file and also when you save a setting 3 file later in the application It remains valid until you aera areas P977 Calibration delete the preferences file or you load a setting a n EnA ANANA Place the plezo calibration with different color calibration values SR Pete alpa eno If the color calibration was successful a dialog box will be displayed LI Color Calibration
18. he installation instruction on the screen To install the FireCam Application simply drag the folder Leica FireCam to your desktop or into your applications folder When you open the copied folder you see the following files 6 O Leica FireCam 1 1 P on E f Back Wew Computer Home 5 items 19 84 GB available Leica FireCam Application User Manual 7 Locate the Leica FireCam application and double click it to start the software Leica recommends to create an alias of the application for easier access and to drag it to the desktop or to install the application in the dock of Mac OSX Leica FireCam Application User Manual 8 Install Camera A driver is the communication interface between Driver the camera and the computer There are different camera drivers available for MacOS 9 or MacOSX On MacOS 9 locate the folder FireCamDrivers OS9 and open it Double click on the file LeicaDriversOS9 Installer to install the necessary files to your harddisk You need to reboot your Mac after this installation 8060 fireCam Driven 059 Co Erte Laat Cerin HL rine del 7 ine nat Zero KE avaibibile On MacOS X locate the folder FireCamDrivers OSX and open it Double click on the file LeicaDrivers0SX dmg A so called disk image object called LeicaDrivers will be created on your desktop that contains all the camera drivers for OSX Uretim Di
19. hot 3900x3090 4 Shot 13004030 16 Shot 260032060 26Shot 3900x3090 Selection of the target image resolution Please note that higher image resolutions naturally mean that more memory is required and recording reading and writing times are substantially longer Hi Please note that the image size setting does not affect the live image Leica FireCam Application User Manual 43 Image Control Exposure Time The exposure time is shown in micro milli or seconds You can also type in the exposure time values and add s for seconds or ms for milliseconds _ Image Type 1 Shot 1300x10 A Exposure a oa 7 nz Gan Er Sio Saturation fy 30 F You can also use the up and down key to fine adjust the exposure time but you need to activate the value box first This is the case when you click once inside the value box or when you type a value Nothe how the value box gets a blue border when it is active Image Control Gain A gain control may be used to amplify the camera signal With gain it is possible to shorten the exposure time and increase the frame rate You should avoid gain whenever possible because gain is also amplifying noise which may degrade image quality Set the gain value the same way as the exposure tim value move the slider or type in a value You can also use the up and down key to fine adjust the gain value once the gain box is activated Leica FireCam Applica
20. in or until you press the auto button again only if autolevels is checked Some stored setting files may also modify the histogram parameters See the section about the setting files Levels At any time you can enter different values in the value boxes below the histogram controls Use the up and down arrow keys to move the triangles to the desired position Leica FireCam Application User Manual 48 Contrast To obtain the best Image the contrast indicators black and white triangles below the gray bar should be lined up with the limits of the brightness distribution histogram as shown in the example below This is also the operation that the automatic contrast control performs on the live image Levels Gamma The gamma value helps to brighten or darken specific light intensities within an image Depending on the acquisition situation dark areas in images often appear too dark for the human eye The gamma value is displayed as a gray indicator between the two contrast indicators black and white triangles Moving the gamma value allows selective brightening of these areas The gamma value depends on the position of the contrast indicators A gamma value of 1 0 for example is set when the grey indicator is exactly in the middle of the two contrast indicators independent of the position of the contrast indicators Moving the gamma indicator to the left reduces the gamma va
21. is the live image histogram which is a graphical representation of the current light conditions as seen by the camera The live image display on the right hand side of the window shows the current image and is mainly used for visualization and as a preview of the image to be captured The histogram shows the light distribution in the live image from the darkest components on the left hand side to the brightest components on the right hand side as indicated with the grayscale bar The histogram indicates the relative distribution of pixels by tonal value A peak in the histogram means that there are many pixels in that density range A well illuminated image should contain all components from dark to light Levels Live image histogram The histogram can be used to control brightness and contrast of an image Understanding the histogram is therefore crucial to obtain the best captured images Leica FireCam Application User Manual 47 Manual exposure Automatic exposure offers the best possible combination of the available control parameters for most acquisition situations allowing the user to concentrate on the image content However in situations with difficult light conditions the professional user may wish to modify these control parameters At any time you can move the histogram controls the triangles below the gray bar with the mouse to a new position The controls remain there until you move them aga
22. lect 8 bits and let the FireCam ae Photoshop or similar application take care about the color depth reduction Use the 16bit bitdepth only if you are going to use an image manipulation software that is able to handle the 16 bit data format Leica FireCam Application User Manual 25 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 26 Default image info Acquire Panel Live Image 7 If you switch to the Acquire Panel the Live video of the camera will be displayed Defni rage kifo HAA Fenka O Pice ancar e default ato cher ail ba anachd no acquinat i rte Pass iman Dhia mi may iter ba ected in the Browas parel Cm Of futon O image hype Cis Bf acta Fargo ZOO cela Fadia T City Bannockburn Wcom UA In the Default image info you can add some info tags to your images which are readable by many different image softwares If you save the image in another image manipulation software that does not support such The live image from the aa be seen sh image tags the information gets lost This is also the r ane IL pes So de the case when you save the image in formats like are the image control functions On the bottom side jpg or bmp are the info section and on the lower right side is the big exposure button The various functions in this panel are described All camera and windows parameters are saved as follows when you quit the FireCam application so
23. lue producing a somewhat fainter image moving it to the right increases the gamma value producing a somewhat crisper image Leica FireCam Application User Manual 49 The automatic gamma value function calculates an optimum gamma value from the composition of the current brightness distribution Managing Settings Below the tool bar is a very powerful button that is normally named Custom It manages the setting feature of the FireCam application You can select from some predefined setting like color temperatures gamma or special or create new ones Gamma Special LUuStom 3800K 4100K 5500K NoColorCalib Once you have defined the best settings for your specific environment you can save them and retrieve them at any time This feature is not only useful for different working and lighting conditions but can also be used to create reproducible user specific working conditions gt To save a configuration click the Custom button and select the Save command from the menu gt Choose a suitable name to the current settings and save it Leica FireCam Application User Manual 50 Saya Save As MEIG Template Where Li Settings images i LA Color LJ Gamma T paclal New Folder Ada vo Favorites _ Cancel Save Note how the name of the setting appears on the button This indicates which setting is active at the moment M716 Template Ea As
24. ns of windows on the screen or folder i i locations Modify adjust setting files o Setting files are universal text files which enable If you save own setting files they usually contain you to save and load any preferences of FireCam all the available FireCam parameters This is not application Some of the incorporated settings always desired since loading such a setting file such as color temperature settings or gamma does not only restores the desired parameter e g settings demonstrate the various ways of this the exposure time but all other parameters also feature e g gain binning image mode etc 008 Lela Firecam As settings consist of readible text entries experienced users can alter them and adjust them sio mn i cd ad for particular requests Back YHE Computer ome FINZIONE a Modify for example such a setting file so it only lE A images Laica AreCam contains the desired parameters and name the D settings setting file expressivly See the following sample or a eee explore some of the setting files in the FireCam E Gammi SetGamma 05 folder SelGamma L Setlamma 15 bd 6 A SerGamma 1 5 j Z Uversaturate 58 SeiGamma 2 0 CProcessMor mGamma 1 5 m a spaclal LProcessidar maturation 1 500000 mop Landscape cop Portrait Farai ra Bo Negative 2 Positive CFrocessMgr mBlackLevel 65535 CProcessMor mBlackLavel 0 F CProcessMgr mWhiteLesel 0 ki CProcesa
25. ocus value and moves slowly to the left until it touches the green bar again Use this focus indication to find the perfect focus for your image To reposition the magnifying section move the mouse cursor inside the magnifyer window Note how the cursor turns into a hand tool Click the mouse and drag the window to any other location to display another full resolution section If you want to zoom into a corner where you normally cannot move the magnifyer window click with the mouse cursor into that corner instead of draging the magnifyer window there As long as the magnifyer window is visible all image adjustments like exposure time gamma saturation etc will only be applied to the magnifyer window To turn off the magnifyer tool choose another mouse tool from the toolbox e g the arrow tool Leica FireCam Application User Manual 42 Image Control Image Type Some important control features are located in the following image control box _ Image Type 1 Shot 1300x110 Exposure rr ems cn ee 10 Saturation for z395 Type Depending on the image source there may be one or many image resolutions available Special cameras are capable of achieving true image sizes that are multiples of the actual chip size by means of CCD chip movement Other cameras are able to combine several pixels to form a new pixel thus increasing sensitivity but at a smaller image size binning a 1 Shot 1300x1030 S
26. of the image all gray tones from black to white without any color tone Thus the term white balance is not strictly correct neutral balance would be more accurate However as the term white balance is used worldwide we will continue to use it here The white balance procedure is one of the most important settings for the acquisition of a well balanced color image It can be applied either to a specific detail of the image or to the complete image White and Black Clip set to 2 live image is more crisp due to clipping of histogram To do a white balance in an image simply click with the mouse in live image As soon as the mouse is moved inside the live image the mouse pointer Hi For best results and crisp images set the clipping value between 0 5 and 2 Automatic Levels sets the histogram controls in changes from an arrow to an eyedropper Click with such a way that black point and white point the mouse on an area that should be white or gray matches the histogram values according to the balanced A white balance mark is placed at the black and white clip settings click position for later reference but will not be stored in the image To avoid such markers select Automatic Whitebalance automatically calculates the color wheel tool see below the white or graybalance of the entire image Make sure the overall live image contains all colors equally Do not mark this option if you are working with monochromati
27. on the following parameters exposure time image Automatic Exposure Time calculates the amplification image contrast and gamma value appropriate exposure time so that the live image is l l i well balanced neither under nor overexposed gt Activate the automatic function by clicking on p awe the auto button Black Clip White Clip sets the black and white histogram controls the triangles below the greybar to the corresponding values in the histogram see example below Note how the button turns grey as you press it and becomes unpressed after a while This is because the FireCam software calculates the best capturing values from the present live video only and then returns control The automatic feature is not active all the time to avoid slower frame rate due to ongoing calculations If the lighting conditions Leica FireCam Application User Manual 35 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 36 Levels Toolbox Arrow The arrow tool has no function and is used to turn off other mouse tools e g if you want to avoid a change of the neutral setting by clicking with the neutral tool inside the live video you should return to the arrow tool White Clip set to 0 Black Clip set to 0 all pixel values are displayed no clipping occurs Toolbox White Balance The white balance function performs a color correction in the image source in order to display all neutral colored components
28. ou may also set any options that this camera model supports Please cover the persar s0 hal no light fits rt Camera Leica DC500 ca Serial No 212000001 Firmware 1 3 HW Revision 2 oling White Correction W Active Co Blacks Vi A black reference may become very useful if long f Calibrate 3 exposure times are used The dark current of a specific exposure time will be corrected by applying some algorithms to the captured images if a black reference is available Taking a black reference will take approx 30 seconds Active Cooling you can turn off the active cooling of the DC500 in case you need to save battery power on a Leica FireCam Application User Manual 17 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 18 2 White Reference 3 Color Calibration The shading correction function allows an Calibrate improvement of the overall image quality This bia Gc iaa ario yal function is only available with certain Leica wish to perform Cameras Black Reference i i FRENA The brightness distribution is seldom Color Calibration Fiero Calbration homogeneous over the whole picture in practically all situations because of the lighting conditions optics adapter etc To create a perfectly corrected homogeneous image a black image ie an image created in zero light conditions and a white image ie an image of the exposure light only are taken as references and calculated into the original ima
29. ps Processing 3 images 4 Pree 13001030 Size 2 8 FE Free Space 3296 Fiks Note that you can capture several images in a row without waiting for the image processing As you Live Video 3 fps capture the images the image processing pipline NET counts up the remaining images to process As soon as the processing is done the captured images are displayed in the Browse Panel Leica FireCam Application User Manual 29 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 30 Popup menus Many functions or status messages contain further sub functions or settings These sub functions are generally hidden and can be accessed by pressing the CTRL key and clicking with the mouse button Note how the cursor changes from an arrow to an arrow with a small menu when you press the CTRL Key Levels Context menu with important functions Leica FireCam Application User Manual 31 Live Image Control The live image shows the image as supplied by the camera Depending on the type of camera the live image can differ from the target image significantly e g if the camera supports various different resolutions The main task of the live image is a visual check on the image quality i e focussing framing etc The quality of the live image display is heavily dependent on the camera specification and might differ for the individual image sources The live image window itself also contains control elements The function may b
30. rface This design means that you can operate all the cameras on your system without further expense after having worked through the user interface once Leica FireCam Application User Manual 5 Installation Li Connect Camera Fi Install Leica FireCam Application Leica FireCam Application The FireCam application is bundled with all new camera options purchased The FireCam application is the stand alone software to control the Leica cameras It contains all the control and display functions for the camera and is very easy to use The standard procedure for a camera installation is described below This normally consists of the following operations gt Connect your camera to a firewire port on your computer Some computers have a firewire connectors that do not carry power lines and therefore need a so called Firewire Repeater to add power to the firewire bus Some early blue desktop G3 Macintosh computers need an additional OHCI firewire board to operate the camera correctly See the system requirements at the end of this manual or in the Readme Files of the CD Insert the FireCam CD into the CD Rom drive of your computer When the Leica FireCam CD appears on your desktop double click the icon to see the contents of the CD The following folder will be displayed User Manual 6 GOG lri firem Locate the file ReadMeFireCam jpg ReadMeOS9 jpg or ReadMeOSX jpg and double click it Follow t
31. s Navigation Left Right Moves one image to the left or to the right PageUp PageDown Moves the number of visible thumbnails to the left or to the right Home End Jump to the first last image in the row Leica FireCam Application User Manual 54 Note how fast the images are displayed in the preview window This is because only a picture preview image inside the image data is displayed that was created during image acquisition Therefore previewing a 7OMbyte highres image does not take longer than a 1shot 3 Mbyte image The Pictrue preview inside the captured image may get deleted if you open a captured image in a third party image manipulation software and save it to the same location Avoid saving captured images to the same location Consider the captured images as your digital negative that should never be changed As soon as you manipulate the image you shall consider it as a copy of your negative and store it in a different location Delete an Image You can not copy or paste images into the row but you can delete obsolete single images Open the File menu and select the meny entry Delete or select an image and press the shortcut Apple Backslash To delete an image you can also select the image in the thumbnail row and hold down the CTRL key Note how the mouse cursor changes its shape to indicate that there is a hidden menu Click with the mouse to display the menu and choose del
32. soon as you change any image parameter of the live video the name of the button is replaced by the word Custom again indicating that some setting values may have changed and the saved or restored setting is not valid any more Once a setting has been saved it is automatically entered into the list of directly retrievable settings where several predefined configuration settings are available for retrieval You can thus easily activate or deactivate setting combinations such as auto contrast auto gamma and auto exposure Leica FireCam Application User Manual 51 Info In the Info box some interesting parameters of the current image are displayed _ Info r 130 Pie 270x228 gi 143 Size 1I80KB b 179 Free Space 112956 Fiks Live Video r g b values When the eyedropper mouse tool is selected and the cursor is inside the live video window the actual pixel brightness values under the mouse cursor are displayed The brightness values of the three color channels are displayed after color conversion and image data processing according to the parameters of the white balance and levels control Frame Rate Value The frame rate of the live video is displayed in number of frames per second Try to set the image parameters in such a way that the frame rate is highest to allow comfortable focussing or arranging of subject Pixels Size of a captured image in pixels width x height Size Size o
33. that you do not have to repeat these setup steps in future Leica FireCam Application User Manual 27 Leica FireCam Application User Manual 28 Image acquisition Acquire Panel General Controls To acquire an image simply click on the The image acquisition module is controlled by Acquire button select the menu enty Newin means of an interface designed to be as easy as the File menu or press the shortcut 38 N possible to use and which shows most frequently used functions and information The graphic Note how the Acquire button turns red fora control elements laid out in the left part of the moment and that a release sound of a camera Is graphical user interface are used to control the played standard functions of your image source Custom req 4 Image Type 1 Shot 1300 10 1 Exposure Ste New NJ n Acquir Acquire Depending on the camera type and the settings you have selected this process may take anything from a few seconds to several minutes Sometimes Gah Qe o the image will be exposed several times and a high BESATE rt 1008 resolution will be achieved using chip offset n techniques These processes can take a long time Levels to execute even on fast computers Two turning arrows in the Info box indicate the operation currently being executed Info Pee 1300x1030 gi Size 38B b Free Space 12825 Fiks 5 f
34. tion User Manual 44 Image Type 1 Shot 1300x10 Exposure rr Tms Gan Saturation n a The gain value is displayed as a factor 1x 2x 3x etc but you can also type in the values in dB which is also commonly used with digital cameras and which is recalculated and displayed as a factor Saturation LIA A z0 If a gain value of more than 0 dB or 1x is selected a warning message will be displayed Gain is bad Using gain can severely degrade image quality Use this feature with caution C Don t show again Hi If you do not want to be reminded about the gain setting click the checkbox so the warning message does not show up again If you want the message to reappear delete the preferences file of the FireCam application Leica FireCam Application User Manual 45 Image Control Saturation The Saturation slider lets you select a desired color saturation For normal color images move the slider to the right to 100 For pure grayscale images move the slider to the left to 0 You can also type in the desired value by activating the value box and entering a value Note that you can type in a value of more than 100 thus oversaturating the image which may be quite useful with very faint color images _ Image Type 1 Shot 1300210 T Exposure Gan Saturation Leica FireCam Application User Manual 46 Levels Control A very important image control element
35. to avoid any white balance markers inside the live video which are set when you use the neutral eye dropper Toolbox Crop This function allows you to acquire only part of the image When corp is activated a rectangle is shown in the image The position and size of the crop rectangle can be changed at any time by moving the mouse on one of the square dots around the window frame and dragging the mouse with the button depressed Note how the mouse pointer changes its shape to an arrow as soon as you touch one of the square dots of the rectangle Leica FireCam Application User Manual 40 To move the crop rectangle to another position click inside the rectangle and drag it to the new position To get rid of the crop rectangle simply click outside of the crop rectangle Toolbox Magnifyer With the magnifyer tool you can enlarge a portion of the live video for better focusing like a magnifying glass The magnifyer window always displays the section under the window in full resolution 1 1 so some zooming normally occurs if you display the live video in reduced resolution Note that the magnifyer window pops up in its last position as soon as you select the magnifyer tool Leica FireCam Application User Manual 41 Fi Fi Below or above the magnifyer window a focus bar is displayed which indicates a sharpness measure inside the magnifying window The red square inside the focus bar will stop at the highest f
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