ThirdEye user´s manual

The depth of field

The lens of the ThirdEye dental camera has a fixed iris (besides the electronic iris built in the ccd chip) with a diameter (aperture) of 2,2 mm. This aperture ensures sufficient light falling onto the ccd chip with all dental lights on the market even those with less lighting intensitiy.

Focussing the lens

We all prefer a certain working-distance  - distance of the front of the dental light to the mouth of the patient - of our dental light. With good illumination the camera must be focused to the tooth we are treating only once. Slight changes of the position of the dental light do not need new focussing but are compensated by the wide depth of field of the system and the image remains sharp.
However, if the alteration of the distance is big - more than 10 to 20 cm - you have to focus again. You focus by turning the outer tubus of the lens.

Why no autofocus  ?
You wonder, why there is no autofocus integrated in the ThirdEye dental camera ? There is a simple reason for that. It wouldn´t work ! An autofocus normally adjusts the focus to the middle of the shot, in our case our working area. Now, if we were not working in the patient´s mouth all would be fine. The autofocus would focus to the tooth you want to show to the patient. But, as soon as the patient would move his head or we would be working with our dental mirror or fingers in front of that tooth surface the autofocus would nervously focus back and forth, the image never would be sharp at all. You won´t be able to video tape a whole treatment with an built-in and activated autofocus !

Besides, an autofocus needs more lenses built in. More lenses mean less light passing the lens. Less light means a wider aperture and a wider aperture means less depth of field ! Our camera has a depth of field of 8-15 centimeter. A quality, which you will not find in any autofocus lens with a similar focal length.

The lens hood

The outer tube of the lens is the only part of the camera touched by our hands. To prevent a contamination of the lens, we deliver a special lens protection. This lens hood is made out of polypropylene. This material can be disinfected in the disinfection bath or even be autoclaved at 135^o C.  The lens hood simultaneously serves as sun shade and ray shade. It prevents other light sources - for example your ceiling light or daylight falling through a window - falling onto the front lens, thus reducing contrast of the system. You can focus th elens with th elens hood in place.

Adjusting the manual white balance _{(very important !)}

All ThirdEye dental cameras can be operated both in automatic or manual white balance modus.

The preferred modus should be the manual white balance, because in this modus only you will have optimal color reproduction under any lighting conditions.
To adjust the manual white balance direct your dental light with the camera onto a white sheet of paper in front  of your patients mouth or in front of the head rest of the dental unit. Now push the red button on top of the camera towards the housing (short button). If the red button already is pushed "in", push it twice ("out "and "in" again) That´s all !
Check the colors of the gingiva of your patient or the colors of your skin on the monitor.

Rotation of the camera

You can rotate the camera on the miniature camera stand for about 45  degrees to each side. Thus you always can adjust the lip line or the teeth arch to the horizontal in whatever position the patient´s head might be.

Taking shots with the dental mirror

If you want to shoot subjects or tooth surfaces only visible with your mirror the light of your dental light should come out of the direction of your head. The central beam of the dental light then will be parallel to your visial axis. What you see in your dental mirror will be what you get on the monitor screen*.

* provided your dental assistant controls the focus

This user manual is available as a Word file(4,5 MB) or as a PDF file(1,6 MB)