Balancing The Left Side And Right Side Gain - Basler A202K Manual

3.5.2 Balancing the Left Side and Right Side Gain

As described on page 3-13, gain alignment between the channels is important to maintain uniform
output data with minimal gray value differences between the left side and the right side of the
image.
In some applications, multiple cameras are used, for example, when two area scan camera are
used next to each other to form one large image. In some cases, a camera in an existing
application must be replaced. In these situations, it is also necessary to balance the gain between
cameras.
To meet the goals of balanced channels and comparable output between cameras, each Basler
camera is calibrated before it leaves the factory. This calibration procedure has the following
effects:
• The factory gain settings for the left side and the right side channels are aligned so that they
equally amplify the signal and a uniform output is achieved on both channels. In addition,
they are set to a low gain value to obtain an optimal operating point (low noise, good left side/
right side channel match).
• All cameras have default gain settings and reference gain values which match the output of a
factory master camera of the same type. This output is referred to as 0 dB. So if a camera's
gain is set to 2 dB, this means 2 dB more than the gain of the master camera
• The reference gain values are stored in the camera. These stored values can be used to cal-
culate higher or lower gain settings that will keep the left side and right side channels in bal-
ance and comparable to other cameras of the same type.
If you use the Camera Configuration Tool (see Section 4.1 and the configuration tool's on-line
help) to set the gain on your camera, the "auto-balance" feature on the Gain and Offset Tab will
automatically use the stored reference values to keep the channels in balance.
If you use binary commands (see Section 4.2) to set the gain, you can use the reference values
to calculate gain settings that will keep the channels in balance. Section 3.5.2.1 describes the
method for using the reference values when changing the gain with binary commands.
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BASLER A202
DRAFT
Operation and Features
3-15