The image is too dark at dusk or under lights. Which settings help?
Set Gain Method to AGC with Auto Iris, open a manual iris toward the smaller f-numbers, raise AGC Brightness, add light at the line, then lower the frame rate a little. LuxBoost helps once gain passes 150.
At dusk or under stadium lights the camera simply has less light to work with. Let FinishLynx follow the light automatically first, then add light at the finish line, and only then trade a little frame rate for brightness.
- In Camera Settings | Parameters, set Gain Method to AGC and check Auto Iris (it needs a remote-control lens). A manual iris lens: turn the iris ring toward the smaller f-numbers, from f8 toward f2.8. Still too dark? Raise the AGC Brightness. A Maximum Gain of 150 suits most conditions and can go up to 250 in extreme low light, but high gain adds noise.
- Aim a spotlight, or a second one, at the finish line. Incandescent quartz-tungsten-halogen lamps, or metal halide overshadowed with halogen, light the line without putting bars on the image. Stand a white board in line with the finish just beyond the last lane, so the far lanes have a white background.
- Type a slightly lower value in the camera's Rate field in the Hardware Control window. A lower frame rate gives the sensor more time to expose each image, so lower it only a little for sprints.
- If your Vision-series camera has LuxBoost, check Auto LuxBoost on the Parameters tab so FinishLynx picks the level from the current gain. It is most useful once the gain climbs above 150.
Regular dark vertical bars under indoor lights come from the lighting itself: on cameras with Phased Light Compensation, set it to On in Camera Settings | Setup. For starting values of every setting, see Starting camera settings.
Goes deeper
- Too dark at dusk or under lights — Troubleshoot · Camera · EtherLynx Camera · Image & Focus
Related questions
- What type of light will help when capturing in poor or low lighting conditions? — Incandescent quartz-tungsten-halogen lamps, or metal halide overshadowed with halogen, spread evenly across the line. Ordinary AC lighting puts dark bars on the image; PLC and LuxBoost are camera options that help.
- How can I correct overexposed or underexposed FinishLynx images? — With AGC and the gain between 70 and 90: reduce Brightness in steps of 5 for blown-out highlights, or reduce Gamma in steps of 0.05 to bring back detail in dark areas.
- What factors affect the quality of my FinishLynx images? — Five things: the light source and where it comes from, the lens type, the frame rate for the speed of the athletes, depth of field (raise the camera), and lens speed (open the iris at higher frame rates).
- Automatic capture isn't triggering. How do I keep capturing? — Switch the camera to manual capture for now: Camera Settings | Capture tab, tick Manual, and capture with the button or the keyboard.