Image Quality & Setup
Image Yellow or Blue? Three Quick Checks.
A quick reference for a color cast in the eyepieces or on screen.
When everything in the view looks yellow, or the monitor shows everything slightly blue, it is natural to suspect the optics. Color problems are almost always a setting instead: the light level, a filter, or the camera. Check these three before you call for service.
Do this
- Turn the light up. Halogen lamps look yellow at low power. Work at normal brightness.
- Check for a color filter. A blue or green filter is easy to forget in the light path.
- Set the camera white balance. If it only looks off on the monitor, it is a camera setting.
- Use the daylight filter if you have one. On halogen scopes, a blue daylight filter gives whiter light at working brightness.
Avoid this
- Dimming the light to cut glare. Lower brightness makes halogen light look yellower. Use the aperture diaphragm for contrast.
- Loose spare filters. Store spare filters labeled, so the wrong one does not end up in the light path.
- Color only in one eyepiece. That points to the head or a damaged coating. That is a service call.
- A tint on an LED scope. LED scopes rarely tint. If yours does, call us.
The habit, every time
STEP 1
Light at working level
STEP 2
Color filter out
STEP 3
Camera white balance
Color right but the image looks flat or washed out? See Washed-Out Image? Use the Right Knob.
Watch it in a minute
Color uneven across the field, or only in one eyepiece? Coatings or prisms inside may be damaged. That is a service call.
Need hands-on help? See our microscope repair and maintenance service in Houston.
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