Basler Aviator Camera Link Installation And Setup Manual page 30

Adjusting Image Quality
Brightness:
Among the factors determining the brightness of an image are the intensity of the illumination, the
setting of the lens aperture, and the settings for exposure time, gain, and black level.
We recommend that you choose the brightest illumination possible. This will prevent you from
needing to operate the camera using extreme settings. Bright illumination is of central
importance to achieving good image quality.
If illumination of sufficient brightness is not available, you can select a lens that is optimized for
light utilization.
Opening the lens aperture will allow more light to reach the camera's sensor and will therefore
increase the brightness of the image.
Opening the lens aperture can also increase the effects of optical aberrations. This can cause
image distortions and the intensity of light to decrease towards the ends of the sensor (vignett-
ing). In addition, the depth of focus decreases.
You can increase the brightness of the image by increasing the camera's exposure time
setting. With this method, brightness is increased by increasing the amount of photons
collected for pixel readout.
Note that increasing the exposure time setting may reduce the camera's maximum allowed
frame acquisition rate.
Increasing the gain will also increase image brightness.
Increasing the gain too much, however, can cause a loss of detail in the brightest portions of the
image. Unless your application requires extremely high contrast, you should make sure that de-
tail remains visible in the brightest portions of the image when increasing gain.
In the captured images below, notice how brightness increases as the gain increases. Also
notice that at very high gain, detail can be lost in the brightest areas of the image.
Low Gain
24
Normal Gain Very High Gain
Basler aviator Camera Link