4
I have the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema web cam. I've noticed that all of the images taken by the camera have a slight blue tint to them. Further research has shown that the light from the blue LED is being picked up internally by the sensor.
Is there any way to disable the blue LED?
blueTint
Posted 2011-06-30T13:38:13.127
Reputation: 41
3
I "fixed" this on mine by opening it up and using a set of fine needle-nose pliers to snip the LED off the PCB. I somehow managed to do this without rendering the camera inoperable. It was somewhat risky, but as I am using this camera with Zoneminder [ie motion detection], the camera would have been utterly useless to me otherwise.
Disassembly instructions here:
Alex Dekker
Posted 2011-06-30T13:38:13.127
Reputation: 31
I updated the link in the answer to @Robbietjuh 's link. – Alex B – 2016-05-06T20:44:56.900
The link in this answer seems to be dead. You can use the following mirror: http://dslrmodifications.com/lifecam/lifecam1.html
– Robbietjuh – 2014-05-05T23:45:11.5732
You picked the only web camera I have, so I plugged it in and looked at the settings in the application. There is no way to turn it off.
Since the area of the blue light is black, I would cut a small piece of black electrical tape and just cover it since it is causing issues.
KCotreau
Posted 2011-06-30T13:38:13.127
Reputation: 24 985
1The problem isn’t that the photos have a blue tint because the blue light from the LED is reflecting off the scene, but rather because it is being picked up internally. Covering the LED doesn’t help with that. – Synetech – 2013-12-30T21:19:34.593
1
As far as I know, there is no way to disable the LED without destroying it. What kind of images do you take with this webcam, that a slight blue tint disturbs you that much?
Michael K
Posted 2011-06-30T13:38:13.127
Reputation: 3 308
2What kind of question is that? If the photos are bad, then they are bad. That’s like asking what kind of roads a person is driving on that they are so bothered that their car always pulls to the left. – Synetech – 2013-12-30T21:20:40.783
I wanted to find out if the behavior is more of an irritant or an actual problem. I wanted to know this to estimate if it is worth to tinker with the hardware and risk to break it in the process. – Michael K – 2013-12-31T17:58:41.060
Well if it isn’t working, then it’s an actual problem. I suppose if the tint is light enough that you wouldn’t even notice if you weren’t looking for it, then I guess it wouldn’t be worth a hardware modification (especially if it could be nullified with a software filter, even though that would be annoying). A sample snapshot would probably help have helped, but it’s safe to assume that it was bad enough that they actually used the handle blueTint. (I wonder what they ended up doing about it.) – Synetech – 2014-01-01T01:33:35.193
1I've had a similar problem with LEDs on a laptop keyboard. I went low-tech and stuck some black insulation tape over them, so if you can't find a way to disable it... – tombull89 – 2011-06-30T13:43:13.313
@tombull89, re-read the question. The problem isn’t that the photos have a blue tint because the blue light from the LED is reflecting off the scene, but rather because it is being picked up internally. Covering the LED doesn’t help with that. – Synetech – 2013-12-30T21:23:59.203