The system
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Preface
The decision to integrate our camera into an existing system (e.g. intraoral camera) or to buy all the components (monitor, mounts, foot switch...) by yourself that is up to you. But let us give you some advice which components would work best with our ThirdEye dental camera.

The camera

Technical data

Monitors

When you do not possess a monitor or tv device in your practice we recommend three alternatives. 

Considerations before buying a monitor:
Please note, most of the LCD monitors on the market do not have the image quality of a professional broadcast monitor yet. So, images taken with a video camera or camcorder often show dull and poor in contrast on these monitors. This is because of a low contrast ratio of most LDC monitors. A contrast ratio of 250:1 or 300:1 is not enough for a good image reproduction ! In this case not even a high brightness (measured in Candela/m²) of the monitor screen might improve the image quality. 

Before buying a new monitor you should consider your own requirements concerning image quality. 
A further criterion with the choice of a monitor is the space requirements of the monitor. Which space is available around the dental unit. Because professional video monitors are somewhat bulky (because of the picture tube), many dentists settle on a flat screen (LCD monitor), which besides is lightweight and can be mounted to the dental light tube or the dental unit.
A good alternative would be a 10" color video monitor (picture tube, high resolution). This monitor depicts about the same image dimensions of a 14" LCD pc monitor (pc monitors need space for the menu...), but has a superior image quality and sharpness.

Recommendation TFT monitors

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Lenses

There is a choice of two lenses. 

The image quality is alike with both lens types. The advantage of a lens with larger focal length is that you can show a single molar tooth even from larger distance format-filling. However, the longer the focal length, the smaller becomes the depth of focus. Our lenses with fixed iris are small, lightweight, durable and even splash-proof and easy to care for. To focus is simple and fast. Just turn the lenses.

We are asked again and again why our lenses are not equipped with an autofocus. There is a simple reason. 
With your hands or instruments (or even the patients´ tongue) being busy intraorally the autofocus constantly would focus between the sharpness levels of the oral cavity and your hands or instruments. The consequence: The picture never would be sharp at all!

Why we do not use a zoom lens ?

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Monitor  mounts

Foot switch

If you want to freeze (frame grab) live images on your pc monitor (your pc ought to have a framegrabber or tv card), then you would need a foot switch, to keep your hands free.

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Tv card

If you want to use the ThirdEye dental camera with your pc monitor (vga monitor), you would need a tv card or better a framegrabber interface.

Imaging software

To save, administer or change all of the grabbed images you would need an imaging and/or paint software. A very cheap but sufficient software is ACDSee. If you want to show your pateints "before and after" images you would need one of the more sophisticated dental imaging software.

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Recording and data storage

To archive all of the images and video sequences there are different possibilities.

DVD recorder with hard disk (stand-alone device)
With a DVD recorder you now can save videos and still images in a high resolution. The new stand-alone DVD burners, better known as DVD recorders, as "chairside" storage devices do not have the disadvantages of the former built in cd burners, which only work in a pc system.

The best choice would be a DVD recorder, that can record the data to a DVD-RAM disc (by Panasonic, JVC). DVD-RAM discs can be used as removable hard discs, because the data on a DVD-RAM can be erased and is rewritable 100.000 times. The new generation of DVD recorders automatically saves an index image (including the date) with every push of the record button. You even can insert chapters into longer recordings (e.g. of prosthodontic or surgical treatments) to find critical scenes later. 

DV or Digital8 tape recorder
Very high image quality. Not cheap. Long winding time (it is still video tape).

D-VHS (digital VHS tape recorder)
Digital VHS, a video format, whose image quality is superior to any other amateur media - discs or tape. You can keep using your old VHS or S-VHS cassettes. The storage capacity of a D-VHS cassette can be more than 21 hours of high resolution video ! You can create up to 2.000 chapters shown as index images, to facilitate the search for certain shots.

Video tape recorder (VHS or S-VHS)
Obsolete, because of inferior image quality (VHS) and long winding times (VHS and S-VHS) .

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The optimal system  (see also recommended hardware)

ThirdEye + DVD-RAM recorder (with hard disk) + 10" broadcast video monitor

In our opinion the optimal configuration is the combination of the ThirdEye dental camera with a professional video monitor(10" or 12 ") and a DVD-RAM recorder with integrated hard disk.

Advantages
1. 
The ThirdEye dental camera is the optimal device, to shoot  videos of your examinations, treatments and patients´ education even with sound without any expenditure. 
If you only want to shoot and save still images (without soind), you better should use a digital still camera with a ring flash-light (e.g. medical Nikkor) and not an intraoral camera, which you have to connect to a tv card or a framegrabber card in your computer.
2. 
A 10" picture tube video monitor depicts the same picture area of a 14" LCD computer monitor, because with a pc monitor you still have the menu bars on the screen. see are). But: The image quality of a broadcast picture tube video monitor still  is superior to any LCD monitor on the market and the 10" video monitor has about the same weight as a 14" LCD monitor (6 kg). So you can mount the picture tube video monitor to your dental light too.
3.
A DVD recorder (DVD RAM) with integrated hard disk offers every feature you need for archiving and the administration of your video shots. The DVD recorder installs an index picture with actual date and time every time you start a new shot.
4.
You can save all your high resolution images taken with a digital still camera (the best with DVD recorders with built in memory card reader) or all the scanned x-rays directly to DVD.
If you install an extra DVD for each of your patients you can search and examine all the images and video shots of that individual patient on your video monitor at an instant (index frames).

More Arguments for this system

Still images (not video sequences) of an intra oral camera  usually are saved to the hard disc of the practice computer. To show these images to your patients in a later session you have to use a mouse or track ball to open the menus of your imaging software. This procedure will take a couple of "clicks" to go into the menu to locate and display the image  - how fussy !
Why not saving all of the still images and video shots of each patient to his DVD and archiving the DVD in his - or a separate - patient´s chart. You also should store all of your x-rays, digital or analogue - after scanning - on that patient´s DVD.
When the patient is coming into your dental office, your assistant pushes the DVD into the DVD recorder and all the images (including x-rays) and video sequences concerning this patient are at your hand immediately. 
The storage capacity of your computer´s hard disk is limited. Imagine, 2 minutes of video - even with mpeg2 compression -  need about 100 mb of storage capacity. New images or videos of the patient are saved and archived on his individual DVD by the push of the red "record" button of your DVD recorder (with index image, date and time of day).
Right now the cheapest  hard disk is a DVD ! Where do you get a hard disc with a storage capacity of 4,7 GB for less than 1 € ?
Our favourite is DVD-RAM (made by Panasonic or JVC). A DVD-RAM can be used as a hard disc. You can overwrite it up to a 100.000 times.

Imagine  
From now on you can video document all of an examination of a patient and dictate the findings directly to DVD.
The average examination - and duration of the video shot -  takes about two minutes. Yourself need not take the camera in your hands, but your dental assistant guides the dental light to the teeth you´re looking at and pulls the focus (if necessarry).
Thus, you can save 60 complete examinations (30 years) of a single patient on one DVD, in excellent quality.
Now you can document whole difficult prosthodontic, orthodontic or surgical treatments. Even better, with the timer function of your DVD recorder you can record shots with a duration of one or two  minutes lets say every 5 minutes . All this you cannot do with any intra oral camera nor with any pc system.

Okay, why using your pc hard disc ? There is an easier way !

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