Omax A3520HDLT Compact 1080p 60fps HDMI Camera Instruction Manual

**Omax A3520HDLT Compact 1080p 60fps HDMI Camera Instruction Manual

**

Safety

Before using your OMAX product, please read the following safety precautions carefully to avoid causing damage to your Am Scope product, or injury to yourself or others.
Turn off power if the instrument exhibits unusual or dangerous behavior such as emitting smoke or unusual odors. These can be indications of electrical problems, in which case the instrument should be disconnected from any power source if safe to do so. Other indicators can be a loud buzzing sound or crackling. Contact OMAX to report such behavior.
Do not use around flammable liquids or gases. Electric instruments can ignite flammable substances which could result in an explosion or fire.
Do not use in a wet environment. Electrical components of the instrument can discharge when exposed to water, potentially resulting in damage to the instrument, or injury to yourself or others.
Only use the provided power adapter or authorized replacement. Incompatible power sources can cause damage to the instrument. If you should lose the included power adapter, please contact OMAX for information about a replacement.

Do not dismantle. Dismantling can result in damage to the instrument, and potential exposure to dangerous materials or electric current.

Notices

OMAX reserves the right to change specifications of the hardware and software at any time without notice. Continuous efforts are made to improve performance and reliability, which can result in changes to design and compatibility. Please contact OMAX for any concerns regarding such changes.

Proposition 65 Notice for California Residents

Cables included with the products described in this manual can expose you to chemicals including lead,
which is known by the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information.

A3520HDLT Specifications

Sensor| IMX307 (color)
Sensor Type| CMOS
Sensor Optical Format| 1/2.8”
Active Recording Pixels| 2.07M (1920 x 1080)
Pixel Size| 2.9µm x 2.9µm
Active Sensor Area| 5.57mm x 3.13mm
Shutter| electronic rolling shutter
Sensitivity| 1300mV @ 1/30s (f/5.6)
Video Resolutions| 1920×1080 @ 60fps
File Formats| JPEG (photo), MP4 (video)
Recording Media| Secure Digital up to 128GB
I/O| HDMI (video out), USB (mouse), SD
Lens Mount| C-Mount
Power Requirements| DC 12V

What’s In The Box

The standard outfit includes:

• One camera
• One USB mouse
• One HDMI cable
• One power adapter
• One USB flash drive

Setup

Attaching the Camera to a Microscope

This camera uses a C-Mount standard lens mount. The camera can be mounted directly to a microscope which provides a C-Mount photo port, or it can be mounted to an ocular or photo port by using an optional compensating lens. The C-Mount standard uses a 1” (25.4mm) diameter with 32TPI (0.794mm pitch).

To mount the camera to a C-Mount port, simply remove the camera’s lens-port dust-cap, then align the microscope’s port with the lens port. Rotate the camera in a clockwise manner until it is firmly attached. The photo port on some microscopes will have a rotating interface which can be locked and unlocked to change the orientation of the camera. If so, you can use this to properly align the camera to produce upright images. If not, you may need to unscrew the camera slightly to achieve the proper orientation.

To use a compensating lens, the correct lens must be used. A compatible compensating lens would have a C-Mount thread which would allow it to screw onto the camera’s lens mount. The other end would be cylindrical, and would slide into one of the microscope’s ocular ports or photo port. The compensating lens will have a magnification such as 0.5X or 0.37X. When the lens has a magnification below 1X, it is referred to as a reduction lens since it reduces the size of the image projected onto the camera’s sensor. The magnification should roughly match the optical format of the camera’s image sensor (see Sensor Optical Format in the specification tables). For example, if the camera’s sensor format is 1/2”, then a 0.5X compensating lens would be appropriate.

Attach the lens to the camera by aligning the threads with the camera’s lens port. Gently screw the lens into the port in a clockwise manner until it is firmly attached. Next, slide the lens into an appropriate port. Because of the camera’s size and weight, it is better to use a port on the microscope intended specifically for cameras, such as a vertical trinocular port. This will avoid tipping the microscope, and can prevent the camera from rotating. Additionally, a sizing adapter may be needed if the diameter of the lens’ tube does not match the diameter of the port. Some lenses will include sizing adapters such as a 23mm to 30mm adapter.

HDMI Connection

In order to operate, this camera must be connected to a compatible video display such as a monitor or television. The camera’s controls and settings are accessed using the supplied USB mouse.
Begin by attaching one end of the supplied HDMI cable to the camera’s HDMI port. Connect the other end of the cable to the monitor’s or television’s HDMI input. The video display may need to be manually configured to use the correct input. If so, consult the video display’s manual. Connect the supplied USB mouse to the camera by attaching its USB plug to the camera’s USB port labeled “USB Mouse”. Next, connect the supplied power adapter by inserting its barrel connector to the camera’s power port labeled “DC 12V”. The power indicator located above the power port should be bluered which indicates the camera is receiving power. It will take several seconds for the camera’s software to boot, during which a cursor will appear on the screen. Once the camera is fully booted, you can move the cursor around the screen to activate the on- screen controls.

User Interface – Stand-Alone Mode

This HDMI model uses an on-screen UI to operate. The camera controls are located in the panel on the left side of the window, the measurement toolbar on the top, and additional display controls and settings are on the bottom.

By default, the panels will only display when the mouse cursor is hovering over the appropriate area. Left-clicking on the “pin” icon will maintain the panel’s visibility, but will prevent other panels from opening.

The Camera Control Panel

The Camera Control Panel controls the camera to achieve the best video or image quality according to the specific applications. To open the panel, move the mouse cursor toward the left edge of the video window.

adjust exposure time and gain according to the value of expo- sure compensation.
Exposure Compen-sation| Available when Auto Exposure is checked. Slide to increase or decrease the overall brightness to compensate for varying sub- jects.
Exposure Time| Available when Auto Exposure is not checked. Slide to increase or decrease exposure time for achieving appropriate brightness.
Gain| Available when Auto Exposure is not checked. Slide to increase or decrease signal amplification. Increasing the amplification will increase brightness without adjusting exposure time, but will result in increased noise levels.
Red| Manually adjust the proportional Red level of the RGB video.
Green| Manually adjust the proportional Green level of the RGB video.
Blue| Manually adjust the proportional Blue level of the RGB video.
Auto (White Bal- acne)| Continuously adjusts RGB levels automatically based on theoverall video content.
Manual (WhiteBalance)| Enables the manual RGB controls to adjust the color balance.
ROI (White Bal- ance)| Use the on-screen Region-of-Interest selector (rectangle will appear) to define a region which should be used as reference when performing white balance.
Sharpness| Slide to adjust the sharpness level of the video.
Denoise| Slide to adjust the amount of noise-reduction to apply to thevideo.
Saturation| Slide to adjust the color saturation of the video.
Gamma| Slide to increase or decrease the Gamma level of the video.
Contrast| Slide to adjust the contrast of the video.
DC| Select when using DC powered illumination. No flicker compen- sation.
AC (50Hz)| Select when using AC powered illumination with 50Hz to re- move flickering.
AC (60Hz)| Select when using AC powered illumination with 60Hz to re- move flickering.
Default| Restore all values in the Camera Control Panel to their default settings.

Image Exposure

Manual Exposure

Image exposure controls the amount of light captured by the imaging device. Exposure time is used to set the amount of time over which light is collected. More time will result in a brighter image. For most static subjects, increasing exposure time to achieve the appropriate brightness is the preferred method. For moving subjects, too much time will result in blurring as the subject’s location changes over time. Exposure time must be limited in these cases to prevent excess movement. Use of the gain setting would therefore be the preferred method to achieve optimal brightness. Gain controls the amount of amplification applied to the signal generated by the imaging sensor. While the signal strength would be increased, noise generated during the imaging process would also be increased.

Auto Exposure

Auto exposure relies on software to set the exposure time and gain. This simplifies the workflow, especially when capturing images in changing lighting conditions. As a microscope’s magnification changes, or the distance from the microscope to the subject changes, the amount of light collected will also change. Auto exposure can continuously compensate for these changes. This method assumes that the optimal amount of light would create an image with levels which would average to a middle tone. Because of this, images of light subjects may appear too dark, and images of dark subjects may appear too bright. For this reason, adjustment can be done using the exposure compensation control, sometimes called exposure target. This allows you to increase or decrease the target level of brightness.

Color

White Balance

The color of an object is influenced by the color of light reflecting off of it or passing through it. Different light sources produce light with different color-biases. Common examples are incandescent lamps which typically produce warm colors compared to fluorescent or LED lamps which produce cooler colors. This sort of bias is referred to as color temperature. Due to this phenomenon, a white object may appear slightly yellow in morning sunlight, and slightly blue in afternoon shade. To compensate for these variations, digital imaging devices can process images using what is called “white balance.” The white balance process shifts colors based on the color of the light source, with the goal of producing a more neutral white or grey.

The Measurement Toolbar

The Measurement Toolbar will pop up when moving the mouse cursor toward the upper edge of the video window. This panel contains tools and settings for performing measurements.

Select Magnification (requires calibration process)
| Object Selector
| Angle
| 4-Point Angle
| Point
| Arbitrary-Angle Line
| 3-Point Lines
| Horizontal Line
| Vertical Line
| Parallel
| 3 Points Vertical Line
| Rectangle
| Ellipse
| 5-Point Ellipse
| Circle
| 3-Point Circle
| Annulus (Concentric Circles)
| 3-Point Annulus
Icon| Function
---|---
| Two Circles with Distance from Centers
| Two 3-Point Circles with Distance from Centers
| Arc
| Text
| Polygon
| Curve
| Scale Bar
| Arrow
| Perform magnification calibration. Defines relationship between the measurement unit and pixel size. Requires the use of a micrometer slide.
| Export measurement information to CSV file
| Access the camera’s settings
| Delete measurement object
| Exit measurement mode
| Left-clicking on a measurement object will open the Object Location & Properties Con- trol Bar. The icons on the control bar:

•  Move Up
• Move Dow
• Move Left
• Move Right
• Adjust Color
• Delete

When the Pin icon is clicked to lock the Measurement Toolbar, the Camera Control Panel will not be displayed until the Measurement Toolbar is unpinned by clicking the Exit icon .

The Camera Control Toolbar

The Camera Control Toolbar provides a subset of tools for controlling the camera’s video, as well as general settings and the file viewer.

The Zoom tools allow you to use digital zoom to enlarge the on-screen image up to 10X in 0.2X increments.
Horizontal and Vertical Flip are used to reorient the on-screen image due to image-inversion caused by a microscope’s optics or the camera’s physical orientation.
Color/Grayscale can be used to switch between the camera’s normal color image and a desaturated image.
Freeze Video will pause the live video.
A Crosshair or Grid can be displayed to assist with segmenting and counting, image alignment, and other operations.
The Browse tool allows you to view media files recorded by the camera on the inserted SD media.
The Settings panel can be used to customize certain display options, manage saved magnification calibrations, choose image formats, and configure the camera for network operation.

Settings
Measurement
Measurement settings allow you to customize shapes, and define the precision of measurements.

Global| Precision| Sets the decimal scale: number of digits after a decimal point
---|---|---
Calibration| Line Width| Sets the width of lines used for calibration
| Color| Sets the color of lines used for calibration
| Endpoint| Sets the shape used at each endpoint of a line. Includes null or rectangle
Angle, Point, Line, Parallel Line, Vertical Line, Rectangle, Ellipse, Circle, Annulus, Two Circles, Arc, Text, Polygon, Curve,Scale Bar, Arrow
| Each shape or element can be customized using attributes such as Line Width and Color

Magnification
Magnification settings allow you to edit stored magnification calibrations. Each time the calibration process is completed, you can save the results as a magnification preset. These presets can be selected from the Measurement Toolbar to use the appropriate, calibrated settings.

Name| This is the user-defined name of magnification setting. Names typically incorporate the magnification of the objective lens used, and additional information pertaining to the microscope or camera used.
---|---
Resolution| The number of pixels per meter.
Clear All| Clears all saved calibration data
Delete| Clears the selected calibration data

Image Format
Image Format settings allow you to determine whether measurement objects will be merged into saved images, or embedded as a separate layer.

with the image before saving the file.Objects can neither be edited nor removed.
Layered Mode| Measurement objects are saved in a separate layer, and can be edited.

Video
Video settings allow you to change the fast-forward and reverse intervals, and to choose the video codec.

Playback| Fast Forward/ReverseInterval| The number of seconds to be skipped when fast-forwarding or reversing playback of videos
---|---|---
Video Encode| H264| Older AVC video codec with better compatibility across multimedia de- vices, but less efficient compression compared to H265.
H265| Newer HEVC video codec with improved compression while retaining high quality

Storage
Storage displays the format of any recognized storage media including Secure Digital cards and USB flash drives. If compatible media is recognized, the media’s file system will be shown, such as FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS. Unformatted cards must be formatted on a computer or other device prior to being used with the camera.

Files
These settings allow you to select manual or automatic naming modes for image and video capture. When using manual mode, you will be prompted to enter a file name for each capture. When using automatic mode, you can enter a custom prefix for each file type, and the files will be saved using incrementing numbers.

Time
You can set the time and date which would be used when saving files and other data. This information will only be retained while the camera is plugged in.

Language
Language setting selects which language will be displayed. Options include English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Thai, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Russian.

Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous settings include additional helpful settings.

Auto Exposure mode. Setting alower number can improve the frame rate.
Auto Exposure Region|
Gamma Curve Type| Select whether to show higher contrast or improved detail in dark areas
Camera Parameters| Import| Import previously-saved parameters from the SD card
Export| Export current parameters to the SD card
Reset to Factorydefaults| Restore all parameters to the factory-default values

References

• P65Warnings.ca.gov

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