AmScope HD408L User manual

v0.9.20221116
HD408L 4K Mul-Funcon Cameras

HD408L User Guide
Safety
Before using your AmScope product, please read the following safety precauons carefully to avoid causing damage to
your AmScope product, or injury to yourself or others.
Turn o power if the instrument exhibits unusual or dangerous behavior such as eming smoke or unusual odors. These
can be indicaons 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 AmScope to report such behavior.
Do not use around ammable liquids or gases. Electric instruments can ignite ammable substances which could result
in an explosion or re.
Do not use in a wet environment. Electrical components of the instrument can discharge when exposed to water, poten-
ally resulng in damage to the instrument, or injury to yourself or others.
Only use the provided power adapter or authorized replacement. Incompable power sources can cause damage to the
instrument. If you should lose the included power adapter, please contact AmScope for informaon about a replacement.
Do not dismantle. Dismantling can result in damage to the instrument, and potenal exposure to dangerous materials or
electric current.
Noces
AmScope reserves the right to change specicaons of the hardware and soware at any me without noce. Connuous
eorts are made to improve performance and reliability, which can result in changes to design and compability. Please
contact AmScope for any concerns regarding such changes.
Proposion 65 Noce 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 reproducve harm. Visit
www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more informaon.

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Contents
What’s In The Box................................................................................................................................................... 4
Setup ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Aaching the Camera to a Microscope ................................................................................................................ 5
Stand-Alone Mode ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Using with a PC..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Connecng with USB............................................................................................................................................ 7
User Interface - Stand-Alone Mode............................................................................................................ 8
The Camera Control Panel ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Image Exposure.............................................................................................................................................................. 10
Manual Exposure .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10
Auto Exposure....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Color .............................................................................................................................................................................. 10
White Balance....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
The Measurement Toolbar............................................................................................................................................... 11
The Camera Control Toolbar ............................................................................................................................................ 13
Sengs .......................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Measurement ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Magnicaon........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 15
Image Format........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 15
Video..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Storage.................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Files....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Time ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Language............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Miscellaneous ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19

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HD408L Specicaons
Sensor IMX334 (color)
Sensor Type CMOS
Sensor Opcal Format 1/1.8”
Acve Recording Pixels 8.3M (3840 x 2160)
Pixel Size 2µm x 2µm
Acve Sensor Area 7.68mm x 4.32mm
Shuer electronic rolling shuer
Sensivity 505mV @ 1/30s (f/5.6)
Video Resoluons 3840x2160 @ 30fps (USB)
3840x2160 @ 20fps (Secure Digital)
File Formats JPEG, TIFF (photo), MP4 (video)
Recording Media Secure Digital up to 128GB, USB ash drive
I/O HDMI (video out), USB 2.0 x 2 (PC, external media), USB (mouse), SD
Lens Mount C-Mount
Power Requirements DC 12V 1A
What’s In The Box
The HD408N and HD428N standard ouits include:
• One camera
• One USB mouse
• One HDMI cable
• One power adapter
• One USB ash drive
• Soware

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Setup
Aaching 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 oponal compensang 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 unl it is rmly aached. The photo port on some
microscopes will have a rotang interface which can be locked and unlocked to change the orientaon 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 orientaon.
To use a compensang lens, the correct lens must be used. A compable compen-
sang 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 compensang lens will have a
magnicaon such as 0.5X or 0.37X. When the lens has a magnicaon below 1X,
it is referred to as a reducon lens since it reduces the size of the image projected
onto the camera’s sensor. The magnicaon should roughly match the opcal for-
mat of the camera’s image sensor (see Sensor Opcal Format in the specicaon
tables). For example, if the camera’s sensor format is 1/2”, then a 0.5X compensat-
ing lens would be appropriate.
Aach 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 unl it is rmly aached. Next, slide the lens into an appropriate port. Because of the camera’s size
and weight, it is beer to use a port on the microscope intended specically for cameras, such as a vercal trinocular
port. This will avoid pping the microscope, and can prevent the camera from rotang. Addionally, 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.

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Stand-Alone Mode
This HD series camera can be used in stand-alone mode when connected to a compable video display such as a monitor
or television. The camera’s controls and sengs are accessed using the supplied USB mouse.
Begin by aaching 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 congured to use the correct input.
If so, consult the video display’s manual. Connect the supplied USB mouse to the camera by aaching its USB plug to the
camera’s USB port labeled “USB Mouse”. Next, connect the supplied power adapter by inserng its barrel connector to
the camera’s power port labeled “DC 12V”. The power indicator located above the power port should be red which indi-
cates the camera is receiving power. Press the camera’s power buon to inialize the camera. The power indicator will
change to blue. It will take several seconds for the camera’s soware 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 acvate the on-screen controls.

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Using with a PC
The camera can be used with a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer by installing AmScope imaging soware which is
included in the camera’s packaging or can be downloaded from the AmScope website: hps://amscope.com/pages/so-
ware-downloads.
Soware is available for current versions of Windows, Mac OS, and Linux operang systems, but availability or compat-
ibility is subject to change. Before connecng the camera to a computer, install the soware to ensure the device will
be recognized by the operang system. More informaon regarding the soware is available in the soware’s help le
which can be accessed from the soware’s menu under “Help.”
The camera can be accessed from the computer using a USB connecon, wi-, or Ethernet. When the proper connecon
is made, the camera will be displayed in the soware’s list of available devices.
Connecng with USB
The camera can be connected to a computer using the provided USB cable. The cable has a type-A USB connector on
either end. Plug one type-A connector into the camera’s USB port labeled “USB Video”. Plug the other type-A connector
into one of the computer’s available USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports. If the camera is not already powered on, press the power
buon and wait for the power indicator LED to turn solid blue. If the AmScope soware has been installed on the com-
puter, the camera will be recognized as an imaging device, and can be accessed using the soware.

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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 le side of the
window, the measurement toolbar on the top, and addional display controls and sengs are on the boom.
By default, the panels will only display when the mouse cursor is hovering over the appropriate area. Le-clicking
on the “pin” icon will maintain the panel’s visibility, but will prevent other panels from opening.

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The Camera Control Panel
The Camera Control Panel controls the camera to achieve the best video or image quality according to the specic appli-
caons. To open the panel, move the mouse cursor toward the le edge of the video window.
Control Panel Funcon Descripon
Snap Capture image and save it to the SD card.
Record Record video and save it to the SD card.
Auto Exposure When Auto Exposure is checked, the system will automacally
adjust exposure me and gain according to the value of expo-
sure compensaon.
Exposure Compen-
saon
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 me for achieving appropriate brightness.
Gain Available when Auto Exposure is not checked. Slide to increase
or decrease signal amplicaon. Increasing the amplicaon will
increase brightness without adjusng exposure me, but will
result in increased noise levels.
Red Manually adjust the proporonal Red level of the RGB video.
Green Manually adjust the proporonal Green level of the RGB video.
Blue Manually adjust the proporonal Blue level of the RGB video.
Auto (White Bal-
ance)
Connuously adjusts RGB levels automacally based on the
overall video content.
Manual (White
Balance)
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 dene 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-reducon to apply to the
video.
Saturaon Slide to adjust the color saturaon 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 illuminaon. No icker compen-
saon.
AC (50Hz) Select when using AC powered illuminaon with 50Hz to re-
move ickering.
AC (60Hz) Select when using AC powered illuminaon with 60Hz to re-
move ickering.
Default Restore all values in the Camera Control Panel to their default
sengs.

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Image Exposure
Manual Exposure
Image exposure controls the amount of light captured by the imaging device. Exposure me is used to set the amount
of me over which light is collected. More me will result in a brighter image. For most stac subjects, increasing expo-
sure me to achieve the appropriate brightness is the preferred method. For moving subjects, too much me will result
in blurring as the subject’s locaon changes over me. Exposure me must be limited in these cases to prevent excess
movement. Use of the gain seng would therefore be the preferred method to achieve opmal brightness. Gain controls
the amount of amplicaon 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 soware to set the exposure me and gain. This simplies the workow, especially when captur-
ing images in changing lighng condions. As a microscope’s magnicaon changes, or the distance from the microscope
to the subject changes, the amount of light collected will also change. Auto exposure can connuously compensate for
these changes. This method assumes that the opmal 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 compensaon control, somemes called
exposure target. This allows you to increase or decrease the target level of brightness.
Color
White Balance
The color of an object is inuenced by the color of light reecng o of it or passing through it. Dierent light sources
produce light with dierent color-biases. Common examples are incandescent lamps which typically produce warm
colors compared to uorescent or LED lamps which produce cooler colors. This sort of bias is referred to as color tem-
perature. Due to this phenomenon, a white object may appear slightly yellow in morning sunlight, and slightly blue in
aernoon shade. To compensate for these variaons, digital imaging devices can process images using what is called
“white balance.” The white balance process shis colors based on the color of the light source, with the goal of produc-
ing a more neutral white or grey.