Activity:

Changing your camera settings using Windows

Operating Systems:

MS Windows

Details:

To manage the settings for your Center Cam on your PC, follow these steps:

1. Download the software from the link
2. Once downloaded, open the software from the download location
3. Go to Devices and select the Center Cam. 
4. Go to Options and select Preview. Note: this preview starts the camera but will not allow the camera to be used with other applications that need to use the camera. You can use the other applications to view your image as you change the settings.
5. Go to Video Capture Filter. This is where you will be able to change the camera settings.
6. Change your settings. There are two tabs where you can set the different features. The settings below will be the defaults that you will see on the camera.
7. Review each of the settings, using the following descriptions as a reference:

1. Brightness - simply put, this is how dark or light your video is. 

2. Contrast - This is the difference in the bright and dark areas of the image. If the contrast is high, the image looks lively; conversely, if the contrast is low, the image looks flat and monotonous.

3. Hue - This describes where the specific color fits between the basic basic colors on the color wheel

4. Saturation -  describes the color purity or the amount of brightness a color appears to have in your video. Low saturated colors look grey while highly saturated videos are full of color

5. Sharpness - This describes the clarity of details in the video. Sharpness settings are limited by video software, hardware, image magnification and viewing distance.

6. Gamma - Gamma affects the appearance of dark areas, like blacks and shadows and mid-tones, as well as highlights. Monitors with poor gamma can either crush detail at various points or wash it out, making the entire picture appear flat and dull. Proper gamma leads to more depth and realism and a more three-dimensional image.

7. White Balance - Disable Auto - This changes the color of the image from a cooler (blue) to warmer (red).

8. Backlight Compensation - This is used when Exposure is set to Auto. If you manually control exposure, this function will not work. It will lighten or darken the image.

9. Gain - this is how sensitive the camera will be to light.

10. PowerLine Frequency - If you find yourself in a room with Florescent lighting, select 60 Hz if you live in North America. Majority of other countries will be 50 Hz.

11. Focus - Not a feature in the 1.0 version of the camera.

12. Exposure - Disable Auto - This will change how much light comes into the sensor. Normally this is set to Auto. Changing this to manual can help in scenarios where you get a water fall look to the image.