pco 2.0.2

This class provides methods for using pco cameras.

The Python package pco is a powerful and easy to use high level Software Development Kit (SDK) for working with PCO cameras. It contains everything needed for camera setup, image acquistion, readout and color conversion.

The high-level class architecture makes it very easy to integrate PCO cameras into your own software, while still having access to the underlying pco.sdk and pco.recorder interface for a detailed control of all possible functionalities.

• Documentation: Manual

• Website: https://www.excelitas.com/de/product-category/pco

• Support: [e-mail]

Installation

Install from pypi (recommended):

$ pip install pco

Basic Usage

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pco

with pco.Camera() as cam:

    cam.record(mode="sequence")
    image, meta = cam.image()

    plt.imshow(image, cmap='gray')
    plt.show()

Recorder Modes

Depending on your workflow you can choose between different recording modes.

Some modes are blocking, i.e. the record() function waits until recording is finished, some are non-blocking. Some of them are storing the images in memory, the others directly as file(s) on the disk. However, for the recorder modes which store the images as files, accessing the recorded images is identical with the modes which store the images in memory.

record modes

Mode	Storage	Blocking	Description
sequence	Memory	yes	Record a sequence of images.
sequence non blocking	Memory	no	Record a sequence of images, do not wait until record is finished.
ring buffer	Memory	no	Continuously record images in a ringbuffer, once the buffer is full, old images are overwritten.
fifo	Memory	no	Record images in fifo mode, i.e. you will always read images sequentially and once the buffer is full, recording will pause until older images have been read.
sequence dpcore	Memory	yes	Same as sequence, but with DotPhoton preparation enabled.
sequence non blocking dpcore	Memory	no	Same as sequence_non_blocking, but with DotPhoton preparation enabled.
ring buffer dpcore	Memory	no	Same as ring_buffer, but with DotPhoton preparation enabled.
fifo dpcore	Memory	no	Same as fifo, but with DotPhoton preparation enabled.
tif	File	no	Record images directly as tif files.
multitif	File	no	Record images directly as one or more multitiff file(s).
pcoraw	File	no	Record images directly as one pcoraw file.
dicom	File	no	Record images directly as dicom files.
multidicom	File	no	Record images directly as one or more multi-dicom file(s).

Image Formats

All image data is always transferred as 2D or 3D numpy array. Besides the standard 16 bit raw image data you also have the possibility to get your images in different formats, shown in the table below.

The format is selected when calling the image() / images() / image_average() functions of the Camera class. The image data is stored as numpy array, which enables you to work with it in the most pythonic way.

image formats

Format	Description
Mono8,mono8	Get image as 8 bit grayscale data.
Mono16,mono16,raw16,bw16	Get image as 16 bit grayscale/raw data.
BGR8,bgr	Get image as 24 bit color data in bgr format.
RGB8,rgb	Get image as 24 bit color data in rgb format.
BGRA8,bgra8,bgra	Get image as 32 bit color data (with alpha channel) in bgra format.
RGBA8,rgba8,rgba	Get image as 32 bit color data (with alpha channel) in rgba format.
BGR16,bgr16	Get image as 48 bit color data in bgr format (only possible for color cameras).
RGB16,rgb16	Get image as 48 bit color data in rgb format (only possible for color cameras).

Logging

Logging is implemented according to the python logging package (https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.html). Supported logging levels are:

• ERROR

• WARNING

• INFO

• DEBUG

logger = logging.getLogger("pco")
logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
logger.addHandler(pco.stream_handler)

...
[][sdk] get_camera_type: OK.
...
[2019-11-25 15:54:15.317855 / 0.016 s] [][sdk] get_camera_type: OK.

Documentation (overview)

The full Documentation can be found in the manual

The pco.Camera class offers the following methods:

• __init()__ Opens and initializes a camera with its default configuration.

• __exit()__ Closes the camera and cleans up everything (e.g. end of with-statement).

• close() Closes the camera and cleans up everything.

• default_configuration() Set default configuration to the camera

• record() Initialize and start the recording of images.

• stop() Stop the current recording.

• wait_for_first_image() Wait until the first image has been recorded.

• wait_for_new_image() Wait until a new image has been recorded.

• get_convert_control() Get current color convert settings.

• set_convert_control() Set new color convert settings.

• load_lut() Set the lut file for the convert control setting.

• adapt_white_balance() Do a white-balance according to a transferred image.

• image() Read a recorded image as numpy array.

• images() Read a series of recorded images as a list of numpy arrays.

• image_average() Read an averaged image (averaged over all recorded images) as numpy array.

The pco.Camera class has the following properties:

• camera_name gets the camera name.

• camera_serial gets the serial number of the camera.

• is_recording gets a flag to indicate if the camera is currently recording.

• is_color gets a flag to indicate if the camera is a color camera.

• recorded_image_count gets the number of currently recorded images.

• configuration gets/sets the camera configuration.

• description gets the (static) camera description parameters.

• exposure_time gets/sets the exposure time (in seconds).

• delay_time gets/sets the delay time (in seconds).

The pco.Camera class holds the following objects:

• sdk offers direct access to all underlying functions of the pco.sdk.

• rec offers direct access to all underlying functions of the pco.recorder.

• conv offers direct access to all underlying functions of the pco.convert according to the selected image format.