LED brightness and a noisy picture

The LED wheel

On these cameras the ring of LEDs around the lens is powered through a small wheel on the cable or the handle. That wheel is a potentiometer in the LED's supply line: it sets brightness electrically, and the camera has no USB command for it. No software, ours or the maker's, can change the brightness. If the picture is dark, turn the wheel.

Grain and noise

The sensor is small and the LEDs are the only light, so inside a dark cavity the image gets grainy. Two things help:

• More light: wheel up, and get the lens closer to the surface; the LEDs fall off quickly with distance.
• Smooth noise in the viewer's Advanced section: it averages still areas over a few frames so the grain fades, while anything that moves passes through unaveraged, so there is no smearing. It applies to the live view and to saved photos and clips.

Focus

These cameras have a fixed focus, usually sharpest a few centimetres from the lens. If everything looks soft, you are probably too close or too far rather than seeing noise. The included plastic hood or hook sets roughly the right distance when it is clipped on.