FLIR POE GigE IMX249 Byte Swap 16-bit option, binning and settings in v4.0.7483

[Hibou]

I am pleased to see the Byte-Swap 16-bit option in SharpCap4. The wrong Byte order for FLIR cameras was a problem for me a couple of years ago and Robin kindly corrected it, but the latest SC3 versions have reverted to Byte swapping. In SC4, Byte Swap must be OFF for my FLIR POE GigE IMX249 camera. Apart from the strange image, the wrong Byte order is immediately obvious with vertical bars in the Display Histogram, instead of a curve. (Maybe SC could detect that and choose the correct Byte order automatically

Binning is possible with FLIR GigE cameras, and is an advantage for low light sources. Modern CMOS/CCD chips have too many small pixels. But to implement binning, I have to run FLIR's own FlyCapViewer2 and set the “Custom Video Modes” to binning x2 or x4 (as well as Mono16). SC4 can set Mono16 (with Byte Swap OFF) but can't yet set binning

OK, those two suggestions are perhaps not simple to implement, but there are a number of other trivial bugs in SC4. In particular, the "Automatically restore last camera settings" does not work, even though that option is chosen in File/Settings/General. The settings are apparently saved but not loaded by SC4 (they are loaded by SC3). SC4 does automatically connect to the last camera used, but the Output Format, Colour Space, Exposure, Gain, Byte Swap and Display Histogram must all be reset

SharpCap is a fantastic application for an astonishing range of different cameras. It is far superior to FlyCap for example. It is also a little complicated for new users, or those who just want to set it up once and for all and use it automatically. Maybe it needs a "simple" switch to hide most of the many options.

[admin]

Hi,

apologies for the bug with loading the auto saved camera properties – I've just looked into that and discovered the cause. I have a fix that will be in next week's update. Hopefully, once this is fixed your trouble with always having to set the byte swap and other options will be less pressing.

Unfortunately I only have one PGR/Flir camera to test with and so far I've been unable to make the binning functionality work on it. My experience from other camera brands is that binning is one of those things that requires extensive testing to get it right – every camera brand seems to have implemented it in slightly different ways often with subtle pitfalls that aren't obvious from the documentation and only come to light once you try things out.

Cheers, Robin

[Hibou]

Hi Robin.
Thanks for your quick reply. Yes, loading the saved settings would improve greatly the usability of SC4.
Note that binning will only work on FLIR GigE cameras (I think you might have USB3). It works quite reliabiy after you run FlyCap, open the Settings window, click on “Custom Video Modes” and then set 2x2 or 4x4 binning. It even remembers this setting. FLIR GigE cameras can be run POE with a £30 TRENDnet Gigabit injector (Amazon). BTW, you need 32-bit FlyCAP with 32-bit SharpCap. Tiny package, runs a bit hot (45C, but otherwise good for 32s exposures.
Cheers, Alan.

[Hibou]

Unfortunately I only have one PGR/Flir camera to test with and so far I've been unable to make the binning functionality work on it.

I believe CMOS binning is not done on-chip like CCD binning, but in firmware, so you may as well software bin in SharpCap (by summing or averaging adjacent pixels). Before binning, it would be good to filter out isolated hot pixels, especially for CMOS, by replacing them by the average of surrounding pixels, as is done by imageJ noise reduction. Filtering and binning is simple and fast. The idea is to improve perceived intensity in low-light imaging at the expense of the (often excessive) resolution of modern CMOS chips.

We discussed this a couple of years ago. Yes, it doesn't help the statistics, and yes you can do it off-line, but real-time filtering and binning is useful for real-time imaging - just like real-time stacking.