Polaroid DCM 2 Online Technical manual

Online User Guide
DMC 2

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Contents
Navigating in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
DMC 2 Camera Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Taking Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Typical Picture-Taking Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Turning the Camera On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Starting the DMC 2 Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Selecting a DMC Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Framing and Focusing the Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Choosing a Capture Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Choosing Color or Grayscale Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Rotating the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Enlarging the Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Setting Exposure Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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Calibrating Auto Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Setting Exposure Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Setting Sensitivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Selecting Color Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Creating a Custom Color Temperature Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Selecting Image Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Selecting Image Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Image File Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Verifying Sharp Focus Digitally. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Capturing the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Capturing a Rapid Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Printing the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Enhancing the Image with DMC 2 Software . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Automatically Adjusting Color Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Adjusting Color Balance by Selecting a Whitepoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Adjusting Color Balance by Selecting a Neutral Gray Point . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
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Adjusting Color Balance by Selecting a Blackpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Manually Adjusting Color Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Manually Adjusting Dark Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Manually Adjusting Brightness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Adjusting Gamma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Viewing a Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Adjusting Sharpness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Viewing the Full Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Reducing Grain in Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Adding a Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Adding a Calibrated Micron Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Creating a Calibrated Micron Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Deleting a Calibrated Micron Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Saving and Reusing Program Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Program Settings You Can Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
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Setting DMC 2 Software Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
General Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Remote Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Output Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Camera Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the Color Stacker Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Creating a Composite Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Color Stacker Preview Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Camera Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Cleaning the Camera Optics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Cleaning the Camera Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Obtaining Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
DMC 2 Camera Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
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System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
PC Minimum System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Macintosh Minimum System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Installing Software and Setting Up the Camera . . . . . . . . . . 105
Unpacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Installing the DMC 2 Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Attaching the Camera to the Microscope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Connecting the Camera to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Connecting the Camera to AC Power and Turning On . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Taking a Test Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Camera Limited Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Radio and Television Interference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Copyright and Trademark Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
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Polaroid Offices and Service Centers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Solving SCSI Communication Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Changing Sync Transfer Rate on Some Adaptec SCSI Adapters . . . . . 138
Installing a SCSI Host Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

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Navigating in This Document
This Polaroid electronic document uses the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)
and its associated Acrobat Reader software. You should familiarize yourself with the
controls of the Acrobat reader. Access Help...Reader Online Guide...Viewing PDF
Documents...Navigating Pages for more information.
Polaroid electronic documents provide additional navigation tools at the top of the
screen. The icons have the following meanings:
Click to go to the table of contents.
Click to return to the previous page.

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Click to display these help pages.
Click to open the index.

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DMC 2 Camera Features
The Polaroid DMC 2 Digital Microscope Camera captures high-quality digital color
images from light microscopes and other optical instruments. The camera uses a 2-
million-pixel, 11mm CCD (charge coupled device) to capture 14-bit linear RGB
images. It transfers these images in seconds to an IBM PC or Power Macintosh com-
patible computer in TIFF format with 1600x1200 or 800x600 pixels. On IBM PC com-
patible systems, an additional image size of 400x300 is available.

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Using the software provided with the camera, you can:
• Display a color viewfinder image on your computer screen.
• Choose resolution, exposure, sensitivity, color temperature, and other options.
• Automatically adjust exposure.
• Manually adjust color balance, brightness, contrast and sharpness.
• Verify focus digitally.
• Add a calibrated scale to the image.
• Add a title or other text to the image.
• Transfer the image to your image-editing application or hard drive.
• Capture a rapid sequence of images and select one for transfer to your computer.
Note: The DMC 2 software is compatible with DMC 2 and DMC Ie cameras.

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The camera has a SCSI connection requiring no frame-grabber or other special hard-
ware or software. (The camera requires a SCSI host adapter, usually built into Macin-
tosh computers. SCSI host adapters can also be easily added to PC-compatible
computers.)
Compatible with standard .63, 1:1 or larger c-mount adapters, the camera attaches
easily to microscopes for most types of transmitted-light and reflected-light micros-
copy.
Multiple DMC 2 cameras can be connected in a SCSI chain to a single computer simul-
taneously for capturing images from multiple instruments without moving the cam-
era or reconnecting cables.
The camera also features a tripod mount, x-sync connection and remote shutter con-
nection for use with standard c-mount lenses on a copystand or tripod.
Detailed camera specifications

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Taking Pictures
Typical Picture-Taking Sequence
1Turn on the camera.
2Start the DMC 2 software.
3Frame and focus the preview.
4Choose a capture area
5Choose color or grayscale preview.
6Rotate the image.
7Zoom the preview.
8Set exposure.
9Set sensitivity.
10 Select color temperature.
11 Select image type.
12 Select image size.
13 Verify sharp focus digitally.
14 Capture the image.
15 Enhance the image.

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Turning the Camera On
1Turn off the computer.
2Turn the camera power switch to on (1).
3Verify that the green and yellow LEDs are on, indicating AC and termination
power are on.
4Turn on the computer.
Power switch (on = 1)
Green LED
Yell ow L ED

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Starting the DMC 2 Software
If more than one DMC camera is connected to the computer, you must select the cam-
era to be used in this session. To select a camera, see Selecting a DMC Camera.
Macintosh Windows
Double-click Polaroid DMC 2.
The main DMC 2 window appears.
1Select Programs from the Start menu.
2Point to Polaroid Digital Microscope
Camera 2 and select Polaroid DMC 2.
The main DMC 2 window appears.

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Selecting a DMC Camera
If more than one DMC camera is connected to the computer, use these steps to select
the camera to be used in the current session:
Macintosh Windows
1Click the Preferences button in
the main DMC 2 window.
2Click Choose a DMC 2 in the
DMC 2 Preferences box.
3Choose the SCSI address of the
camera to be used.
4Click OK to activate the camera.
5Click Save to close the DMC 2
Preferences box.
1Click Set Preferences on the Tools
menu.
2Click the Cameras tab.
3Click the SCSI address of the camera
to be used.
4Click OK.

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Framing and Focusing the Preview
1View the subject through the microscope eyepiece.
2Adjust subject position, focus and lighting according to the microscope instruc-
tions.
3If your microscope requires, manually switch the light path to the camera.
4If a viewfinder image is not visible in the DMC 2 software main window, click the
Preview button.
Note: If clicking Preview does not display an image, you may need to adjust expo-
sure or sensitivity before continuing.
Exposure adjustment instructions.
Sensitivity adjustment instructions.

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Choosing a Capture Area
You can capture the entire DMC frame or a smaller, selected area.
To capture an area smaller than the DMC frame:
1Adjust exposure to obtain an acceptable image on the Viewfinder Display tab of
the main DMC 2 window.
2Click the Region of Interest Selection tab.
3Select the size of the frame to be captured (3/4 or 1/2 frame) from the Capture
Area list.
A box defining the selected capture area appears on the image.
4Position the capture area as desired by dragging it.

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5Click the Viewfinder Display tab to view only the capture area. The values avail-
able in the Image Size box correspond to the capture area you selected.
6Continue with the picture-taking sequence.

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Choosing Color or Grayscale Preview
You can view the preview image in the DMC 2 main window in either color or gray-
scale. A color preview provides a more accurate representation of the final image,
while a grayscale preview refreshes faster.
To view a color preview image, select Color in the main DMC 2 window. To view a
grayscale preview image, deselect Color.