Analog Control

Name

GainSelector

Standard

Description

Selects which Gain is controlled by the Gain features.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

See enum entries table below.

Default value

All – For color camera

White – For mono camera

Availability

ALL

Notes

The linear gain reflects the product of the analog and digital gain.

Setting the linear gain will adapt the analog (if available) as well as the digital gain.

The analog gain is not supported for all products. If the analog gain is not available, the digital gain is not displayed separately. In this case the linear gain reflects the digital gain value.

If the gain is read while All/AnalogAll/DigitalAll is selected, an average of all available color channels depending on PixelFormat is returned. If the gain is written, the value is written to all color channels defined in PixelFormat.
In case of using ColorToGrey the PixelFormat will be Mono but the color channels for reading and writing the gain value will be Red,Green and Blue.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

Description

All

Selects linear gain of all available color channels.

Red

Selects linear gain red

Green

Selects linear gain green

Blue

Selects linear gain blue

White

Selects linear gain white

Infrared

Selects linear gain infrared

AnalogAll

Selects analog gain of all available color channels.

AnalogRed

Selects analog gain red

AnalogGreen

Selects analog gain green

AnalogBlue

Selects analog gain blue

AnalogWhite

Selects analog gain white

DigitalAll

Selects digital gain of all available color channels.

DigitalRed

Selects digital gain red

DigitalGreen

Selects digital gain green

DigitalBlue

Selects digital gain blue

DigitalWhite

Selects digital gain white

Name

Gain[GainSelector]

Standard

Description

This is an amplification factor applied to the video signal.

Interface

Float

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

The value range varies for different camera variants.

Therefore, query the value range from the feature parameters (min/max entries)

However, for the digital gain the value range is the same for all camera variants.

LinearGain = [DigitalMin * AnalogMin, DigitalMax * AnalogMax]

AnalogGain = camera dependent

DigitalGain = [1.0 , 3.999]

Default value

1.0

Availability

ALL

Notes

This feature is available for Gain Selector
You should create new DSNU reference when changing analog gain.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainAuto[GainSelector]

Standard

Description

Sets the automatic gain control (AGC) mode. The exact algorithm used to implement AGC is device-specific.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

See enum entries table below.

Default value

Off

Availability

ALL

Notes

This feature is available only if Gain Selector is All or White (White for Mono cameras)

The status of automatic gain control is reflected in GainAutoStatus feature.

When the GainAuto feature has changed its value to Off after performing the “Once” or “AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo” calibration, please query GainAutoStatus to check whether the automatic gain control was successful.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

Description

Off

Gain is user-controlled using Gain.

Once

Gain is automatically adjusted once by the device. Once it has converged, it automatically returns to the Off state.

Continuous

Gain is constantly adjusted by the device.

AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo

This process adjusts “Target value” for “GainControlRegion” that the resulting maximum video level fits to given “Target value”.

(see feature “Target value”)

Therefore, the Target value feature defines the target value for AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo command but at the same time the command will adapt the same Target value feature.

The adapted Target value will be the base for further GainAuto commands.

Next to adapting the target values this command will perform GainAuto Once command implicitly.

After process has finished it automatically return to Off state.

Name

GainAutoStatus

Standard

Description

Returns the state of the automatic gain control

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

See enum entries table below.

Default value

Control off

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Name

Description

ControlOff

No automatic gain control in progress.

ControlSuccessful

The automatic gain control was successfully performed.

ControlInProgress

The automatic gain control is in progress.

ControlStopped

Continuous gain control temporarily stopped.

Gain stop control enabled; gain stop condition reached!

ReferenceTimeout

No reference data from the gain control region available! Camera might be in triggered mode. Probably there are no trigger pulses.

LowerGainLimit

Warning! The automatic gain control has reached lower gain limit!

UpperGainLimit

Warning! The automatic gain control has reached upper gain limit!

VideoLevelLowerLimit

Warning!
Process “AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo”, video level too low for target value adjustment

VideoLevelUpperLimit

Warning!

Process “AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo”, video level too high for target value adjustment

TargetValueOutOfRange

Warning!

Process “AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo”, adjusted target values are out of range

Name

GainAutoSyncModeEnable

Custom

Description

Controls whether the gain control reference values are taken synchronous to frame start or independent of frame start. In case of synchronous mode is activated only one reference per frame will be captured. In case of synchronous mode is inactive the reference values are taken continuously from image data stream.

Interface

Boolean

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

True – Enables synchronization mode

False – Disables synchronization mode

Default value

False

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainAutoStopControlEnable

Custom

Description

Controls whether the gain auto continuous mode is limited according to the gain stop factor.

Interface

Boolean

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

True – Enables Gain Auto Stop Control

False – Disables Gain Auto Stop Control

Default value

False

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Name

GainAutoStopFactor

Custom

Description

The stop factor is used to limit the continuous gain control.

The factor is multiplied with the target reference values. The result defines a threshold for the current reference values.

Whenever the current reference values are equal or fall below the threshold, the continuous gain control is not performed till the current reference values are again larger than the threshold.

Interface

Float

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[0.0 , 1.0]

Default value

0.8

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionOffsetX

Custom

Description

Sets the offset x of the gain control region. (in pixel)

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

[2 , (SensorWidth- GainControlRegionWidth)]

Default value

(SensorWidth / 2 ) - 48

Availability

ALL

Notes

The minimal step of the value is one.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionWidth

Custom

Description

Sets the width of the gain control region. (in pixels)

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

[8 , 240]

Default value

48

Availability

ALL

Notes

The step of the width is two.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionOffsetY

Custom

Description

Sets the offset y of the gain control region. (in pixels)

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

Frame trigger off: [3, Height – GainControlRegionHeight]

Frame trigger on: [3 -TriggerDelayLines, 32767]

Default value

3

Availability

ALL

Notes

This feature only takes effect if the Synchronization Mode Enable is set true!

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionHeight

Custom

Description

Sets the height of the gain control region. (in pixel)

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

[2 , 240]

Default value

32

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionVisible

Custom

Description

The borders of the gain control region are drawn into the image if enabled.

Interface

Boolean

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

True – Displays the borders of the gain control region

False – Does not display the borders of the gain control region

Default value

False

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Name

GainAutoAverageSamples

Custom

Description

The number of reference samples which are averaged before doing a gain control step.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[1 , 32]

Default value

4

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionChannelSelector

Custom

Description

Selects the color channel to define the target intensity value or to read the current intensity value of the gain control region.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

See enum entries table below.

Default value

Red

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

Description

All

Selects all available channels for the actual PixelFormat to set the target value to same number.
Reading the target value will return the average of all available channels for the current PixelFormat.

Reading the current value will return the average of all available channels for the current PixelFormat.

Red

Selects red channel to define the target intensity value or to read the current intensity value of the gain control region.

Green

Selects green channel to define the target intensity value or to read the current intensity value of the gain control region.

Blue

Selects blue channel to define the target intensity value or to read the current intensity value of the gain control region.

White

Selects white channel to define the target intensity value or to read the current intensity value of the gain control region.

Infrared

Selects InfraRed channel to define the target intensity value or to read the current intensity value of the gain control region.

Name

GainControlRegionTargetValue[GainControlRegionChannelSelector]

Custom

Description

The target luminance intensity value of the selected channel in the gain control region. The bit depth of the value is 10-bit.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[0 , 1023]

Default value

700

Availability

ALL

Notes

Gain Auto “Once“ or “Continuous”: Internal Gain Control adjusts gain values until current value of GainControlRegion have reached target values.

Gain Auto “AdjustTargetValueToMaxVideo”:

Target value determines the maximum video level which the raw image (without PRNU correction) should reach when doing gain adjustment with GainAuto (Once or Continuous). For that the camera adapts the Target value, until that criterion is fulfilled.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

GainControlRegionCurrentValue[GainControlRegionChannelSelector]

Custom

Description

The current luminance intensity value of the selected channel in the gain control region. The bit depth of the value is 10-bit.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

-

Default value

-

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Name

SensorSensitivityChannelSelector

Custom

Description

Selects the color to be controlled for the sensor sensitivity.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

See enum entries table below.

Default value

Red

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

Availability

Description

All

ALL

Selects all color channels to control sensor sensitivity.
If the sensor sensitivity is modified, the specified value is applied to all color channels. If you read the sensor sensitivity, the lastly set value is returned in this case. After a boot-up, 0 is returned.

White

ax_X

Selects white channel to control sensor sensitivity.

Red

ax_X

Selects red channel to control sensor sensitivity.

Green

ax_X

Selects green channel to control sensor sensitivity.

Blue

ax_X

Selects blue channel to control sensor sensitivity.

Name

SensorSensitivity[SensorSensitivityChannelSelector]

Custom

Description

Controls the sensor sensitivity of the specified selector.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

Variant

Min Value

Max Value

ax_X

0

2

g8_X

0

7

Default value

Variant

Default Value

ax_X

2

g8_X

4

Availability

ALL

Notes

You should create new DSNU/PRNU reference when changing this parameter.

g8_X:

At sensitivity value 0 the FullWell of the pixels can be exhausted and the maximum SNR of the sensor can be reached, but an analog signal limitation can be expected at ~168dn@8bit. This can be brought back to the full digital range of 0...255 by the PRNU or DigGain.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

Gamma

Standard

Description

Controls the gamma correction of pixel intensity. This is typically used to compensate for non-linearity of the display system (such as CRT).

Interface

Float

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[0.1 – 2.5]

Default value

1.0

Availability

ALL

Notes

The gamma values 0.2 – 2.5 behave corresponding to the standard gamma definition. The gamma value 0.1 enables a special sRGB gamma table.

The gamma feature is effective only if the Gamma LUT is enabled.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

BrightnessContrastEnable

Custom

Description

Enable brightness and contrast image processing unit.

Interface

Boolean

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

True – Enables brightness and contrast image processing unit.

False – Disables brightness and contrast image processing unit.

Default value

False

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

BrightnessContrastChannelSelector

Custom

Description

Selects the color channel to control the brightness and contrast.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

See enum entries table below.

Default value

Red

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

Description

Red

Brightness or Contrast will be applicable to the red channel.

Green

Brightness or Contrast will be applicable to the green channel.

Blue

Brightness or Contrast will be applicable to the blue channel.

White

Brightness or Contrast will be applicable to the white channel.

Infrared

Brightness or Contrast will be applicable to the infrared channel.

Name

BrightnessContrastGain[BrightnessContrastChannelSelector]

Custom

Description

Controls the contrast (gain) value for the selected color channel.

Interface

Float

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[0.0 , 1.999]

Default value

1.0

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Name

BrightnessContrastOffset[BrightnessContrastChannelSelector]

Custom

Description

Controls the brightness (offset) value for the selected color channel.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[-0.25 , 0.25]

Default value

0.0

Availability

ALL

Notes

The resulting brightness (offset) is defined by the features value multiplied with the maximum value of a pixel defined by the pixel formats bit-depth.

Example:

The maximum value of a pixel using the pixel format RGB8 (bit-depth 8-bit) is 255.

Brightness value of 0.1 would increase the output pixel value by:

Offset= 0.1x 255 = 25dn’s

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.