Conventional and inexpensive digital cameras1 can also be used for leaf image acquisition. Precautions must be taken so that calibration can be done accurately and rapidly. To facilitate this task, we offer the Portable Imaging & Calibration Kit (PICK) for digital cameras.
The PICK is a good complementary item to our scanner based systems. It allows to acquire images of leaves and other biological samples with a camera in fields, for analysis with our software programs (WinFOLIA, WinCAM, ...). The latter can be done in field or in laboratory (recommended). It contributes in different ways to obtaining good images suitable for precise automated analysis; 1) The background provides good contrasts with the leaves, 2) The translucent non-reflective cover holds leaves firmly against it to avoid shadows and distorted measurements, and 3) Calibration targets allow to make a fast and precise calibration with one or a few clicks (or in some cases automatically). Calibration is required to get measurements in units of your choice (mm, cm...).
The PICK is offered in two different sizes and comes with two backgrounds. One is optimized for color and morphology analysis (disease quantification, area per color, leaf or object area...) using the Pro version, the other for more basic leaf area and morphology analyses (grey levels analysis).
The camera is held above the PICK using a tripod (not included) with or without an extension arm and can use the ambient or a diffuse light (not included). To avoid fuzziness, we recommend to trigger the camera using its timer or a remote control.
1 Almost any model can be used. We do not sell or recommend digital cameras. |
