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#                                    PROTON CAM Release Notes                                     #
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Latest Release:

Package 15 - 24-Feb-2026
------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.7.0
- Firmware (Video Processor) v2.4
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.9.0
- PROTON Control             v1.5.0.0

Changes:

- Improved black level measurement to improve image quality especially in low-light scenarios.
- Reference Manual: Added maximum command runtime for commands which can run longer than 100 ms.
- Added automatic gain mode switching between Standard and Low-Light mode: With the new "Auto" gain
  mode the camera will automatically select the gain mode depending on the current gain setting. It
  will use the "Standard" gain mode for low gain settings and the "Low-Light" mode for high gain
  settings. This makes the whole gain range available without manually changing modes. The threshold
  for the switch between the modes must be calibrated for each camera to make the "Auto" mode
  available. This can be done by running the 'camera gain mode auto calibrate' command. The current
  calibration state can be queried with the 'camera gain mode auto' command. For details see the
  reference manual.
- Fixed current gain, exposure or iris position not being saved when switching auto exposure mode
  and saving settings afterwards.
- Bad pixel calibration is now always done at the default video mode for more consistent results.
  After calibration is done the previously configured video mode is restored automatically.
- Improved auto white balance: The AWB algorithm now also controls the tint value to improve the
  green balance. This means that when AWB is enabled the tint can no longer be set manually (but it
  can be read). Instead the AWB tint can now be fine tuned with the new "video wb auto tint_offset"
  command.
- Improved color calibration for better color reproduction.
- Fixed timecode running at double speed for 12G output.
- ZOOM:
  - Fixed an issue where lens drive initialization at startup could fail.
  - Fixed a regression from release v1.5.1 which caused the lens drive to loose focus when
    driving the zoom at high speeds. Now the intended behavior is restored and the zoom speed is
    limited to always have sharp focus.
  - The 'lens iris' command now also returns the actual iris position when the auto exposure is
    in auto-iris mode (until now it returned the value which was last set by the user). Also trying
    to set the iris in auto-iris mode now return an error (like gain and exposure when AEC is on).

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Previous Releases:

Package 14 - 13-Nov-2025
------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.6.1
- Firmware (Video Processor) v2.1
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.7.2
- PROTON Control             v1.4.3.1

Changes:

- Fixed left and right audio channels being swapped in some cases.
- Improved black gamma documentation, reference manual now has a diagram explaining the effect.

Package 13 - 10-Nov-2025
------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.6.0
- Firmware (Video Processor) v2.1
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.7.2
- PROTON Control             v1.4.3.0

Changes:

- Added scaler feature. This allows the user to to change the field-of-view without changing the
  lens with the new 'video scale' command. Additionally for scale modes > 1 the user can now
  perform electronic pan and tilt operations with the new 'camera pan' and 'camera tilt' commands.
  The effective range of these commands depends on the scale mode.
- Added a rotating live-indicator animation. It can be turned on or off with the new 'video osd
  live_indicator' command.
- Clock tuning with the 'system sdi clock_tune' command has been improved so that it now always
  runs in constant time (instead of taking longer for bigger offsets). As a downside this requires
  a pipeline restart when the clock tuning is changed. This change does reset a previously
  configured clock tuning to 0 so if the camera was calibrated make sure to backup the previous
  value and set it again after the update.
- Fixed documentation regarding auto exposure speed, the range is [0, 100] not [1, 100].
- Fixed auto exposure showing visible jumps in image brightness in some situations.
- Fixed color bar test pattern for interlaced video output.

Package 12 - 19-Sep-2025
------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.5.1
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.15
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.7.1
- PROTON Control             v1.4.2.0

Changes:

- Added Operational Manual for PROTON ZOOM.
- Changed internal storage of the exposure time. This means stored exposure time settings will be
  reset to the default value (maximum exposure) after installing this update.
- Fixed clock configuration errors which could occur on some devices causing them to boot with no
  image output and a red blinking LED.
- Improved error detection and logging.
- Moved 'system clock_tune' command to the new 'system sdi' group, so the new syntax is 'system sdi
  clock_tune'. Also changing the clock offset is now more robust.
- The 'system audio volume' and 'system audio bias' commands now dump the settings for all inputs
  when they are called without arguments.
- Removed LSC presets from ZOOM cameras as they have an integrated lens.

Package 11 - 21-Jul-2025
------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.5.0
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.15
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.6.0
- PROTON Control             v1.3.2.0

Changes:

- Added support for the production version of PROTON ZOOM with analog audio input via audio jack.
- Improved clock calibration. Manual clock tuning should no longer be required, except very high
  clock precision is needed.
  Note: This firmware does reset any clock tuning settings which have previously been done since
  the system is now tuned by default. If you see issues in your application please tune clocks
  again using the 'system clock_tune' command.
- Improved white balance calibration which results in better color reproduction.
- Fixed settings being reset if the camera fails to start three times. This was intended as a
  recovery mechanism but caused issues with battery powered cameras as a low battery could also
  result in the camera not booting properly and settings being reset. The camera still enters a
  save mode after three failed boot attempts, the user can than manually decide to reset settings
  via the normal 'settings reset' command or power cycle the camera to leave the save mode.
- Added a configurable RS485 Tx delay. If set with the 'system rs485 tx_delay' command any command
  output will be guaranteed to happen after at least the configured delay has elapsed. This can be
  used to adjust for slow host devices which take a long time for the Tx to Rx switch.
- Cleaned up lens drive protocol: The speed range of all motors is now normalized to a range of 0
  to 100 %. This means the 'lens iris range', 'lens focus range' and 'lens zoom range' commands no
  longer report the maximum speed as it does not have to be queried by controllers anymore. Also
  the "min" and "max" keywords for the speed were removed since the minimum is now always 1 and
  the maximum always 100. Note that the internal speed ranges are usually lower than 100 steps so
  not every percent will result in an actual change of motor speed.
- Fixed image orientation for PROTON ZOOM, the image is now no longer upside down when flip mode
  is set to "normal".
- Fixed an issue where installing firmware updates with multiple devices on the same RS485
  interface would require a manual reboot or power cycle of the other attached devices before
  they could get updated as well (e.g after installing the update on camera A, camera B would
  not be updatable until it was rebooted).
- Improved defect pixel calibration. It now takes up to 30 seconds but is more reliable at
  detecting blinker pixels. Also fixed a rare issue where the system could end up in a bootloop
  after running the defect pixel calibration if horizontal and/or vertical flip were enabled.

Package 10 - 22-Apr-2025
------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.4.2
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.12
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.4.0
- PROTON Control             v1.2.0.0

Changes:

- Added "min" and "max" keywords for the speed to the 'lens iris', 'lens focus' and 'lens zoom'
  commands.
- Added 'system clock_tune' command which can be used to calibrate the SDI clock source to adjust
  for fabrication and age related clock offsets.

Package 9 - 31-Mar-2025
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.4.1
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.12
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.2.0
- PROTON Control             v1.2.0.0

Changes:

- Added 'system ping' command which can be used to check if a device is available.
- Improved functionality of PROTON ZOOM:
  - Added 'lens ircut' command which allows the user to drive out the IR cut filter.
    Caution: This does break the color calibration!
  - Added 'lens silent' command (enabled by default) which turns off the motors when no motor is
    being driven.
    Caution: For shaky environments this will cause the motors to be less precise as vibrations
    may move the lenses when the motors are turned off.
- Fixed a regression from v1.4.0 where the additional temperature and humidity sensor of PROTON
  RAIN did not work (indicated by a red LED after boot).
- Fixed automatic command completion not working for some commands.

Package 8 - 18-Feb-2025
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.4.0
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.12
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.2.0
- PROTON Control             v1.2.0.0

Changes:

- Added support for PROTON ZOOM, a variant of PROTON CAM with an integrated motorized lens drive.
  A new 'lens' command group was added to control the iris, focus and zoom motors.
- Added new "auto-iris" auto exposure mode for devices with a motorized iris (currently only PROTON
  ZOOM).
- Improved knee function: Previously the knee point was only correct when using the default REC.709
  gamma curve, now it is correct for all gamma LUT settings. Also the point is internally adjusted
  when the gamma curve is changed. This ensures that from a user perspective the knee point is kept
  constant, e.g. when looking at a wave monitor.
- Moved 'camera gain_mode' command to 'camera gain mode' command (it is now a subcommand of the
  'camera gain' command). This does break the previous API but is much more in line with our naming
  scheme.
- Added new 'video test pattern' command which can be used to show a test pattern instead of live
  video output.
- Added new 'video mcc gate' command which can be used to desaturate (gate) selected phases which
  makes image tuning with a vector scope easier.
- MCC gating and blinking are now turned off when MCC enable is toggled (so turning off the MCC
  always results in a clean state where blinking and gating are disabled, even if MCC is enabled
  again).
- Added new 'video black_gamma' command which can be used for fine-tuning of dark image areas.
- Improved filter for CPU temperature (less jumps in measured temperature).
- Improved internal precision of gain and exposure control. This removes visible jumps in the
  image brightness which could occur in very bright environments.
- Added Sony S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.Cine color spaces.

Package 7 - 03-Dec-2024
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.3.2
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.9
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.2.0
- PROTON Control             v1.1.1.0

Changes:

- Fixed BT.2020 color space which was not correctly produced by the camera.
- Fixed AWB speed setting not being consistent for all video modes (some modes were faster, others
  slower than expected).
- Reduced AWB flickering, especially when using a color temperature offset.
- Fixed possible visible artifacts in the top part of the image when AWB is enabled.
- Improved manual white balance via 'video wb' command it now runs for at least 500ms and up to 1s
  if measurement data is not stable.
- Added support for the PROTON RAIN and FLEX variants.
- Added presets to the 'system temp fan' command.
- Added commands to read the additional temperature and humidity sensor values of PROTON RAIN
  and log a "humidity event" when the humidity exceeds 80%RH, see 'system humidity' commands.

Package 6 - 05-Nov-2024
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.3.1
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.8
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.1.2
- PROTON Control             v1.1.0.0

Changes:

- Added new 'wb tint' command which allows the user to control the green balance in both manual and
  automatic white balance modes. This can be used to correct offsets in the white balance caused by
  the lens or the lighting conditions.
- Fix offset in image brightness when using negative brightness values with the 'video post
  brightness' command causing a too bright image and a visible jump when going from 0 to -1.
- Improved some command descriptions.

Package 5 - 25-Oct-2024
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)       v1.3.0
- Firmware (Video Processor) v1.8
- PROTON Updater             v1.2.1.1
- PROTON Control             v1.0.0.0

Changes:

- Fixed manual white balance via 'video wb' command which had to be run twice under some
  circumstances. Also made it blocking until measurement data is stable, it now runs for up to
  10 frames.
- Removed 'wb color_cross' command, moved 'wb gain offset' command and 'wb color_cross offset'
  command to a new command section 'user' for user commands. 'wb gain offset' is now 'user gain'
  and the gains are now multiplied instead of added to the calibrated RGB gains. 'wb color_cross
  offset' is now 'user matrix' and the matrix is combined with the calibrated data via matrix
  multiplication. Also the user matrix is now always applied, regardless of the auto white balance
  being enabled or not and it is no longer cleared by setting a 'wb preset'.
- Reduced flickering of the auto exposure algorithm in very bright scenarios where both gain and
  exposure are close to the minimum values.
- Mitigated an issue where the camera could hang up and reboot when switching video modes.
- Improved quality of the saturation function.
- Fixed broken audio in fractional video modes.
- Fixed invalid audio metadata being embedded for the right audio channel.
- All 'list' comands (e.g. 'video mode list') now add a leading hash (#) to each line so that
  the output of those commands does not get interpreted as a command ID by other devices on the
  same RS485 bus.
- Added the ability to disable RS485 broadcasting by setting the special broadcast address -1.

Also this is the first release which drops the ProVideo GUI in favor of PROTON Control, our new
application for camera control.

Package 4 - 10-Sep-2024
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)          v1.2.0
- Firmware (Video Processor)    v1.5
- PROTON Updater                v1.2.0.1
- ProVideo GUI (PROTON Edition) v1.8.3

Changes:

- Improved white balance calibration. Colors are now reproduced more accurately.
- Improved black level stability, especially in low light scenarios with high gain. Note that the
  'video black_sensor auto' command and the automatic subtraction can no longer be disabled.
- Improved bad pixel calibration, it detects more defects for all gain modes.
- The 'camera low_light' command has been replaced with the new 'camera gain_mode' command.
  Functionally they are identical.
- Added new 'video wb gain offset' and 'video wb color_cross offset' commands which allow the user
  to configure offsets for the white balance gain and color cross matrix instead of changing the
  absolute values.
- Slightly decreased auto exposure speed to avoid unstable behavior.
- When disabeling the auto white balance or auto exposure and saving settings, the settings which
  were last set by the auto algrithm are now stored.
- Fixed negative values of 'video wb color_cross' command not being printed correctly.
- Updated / improved several command descriptions.
- Fixed PROTON Updater GUI not working under macOS.

Package 3 - 16-Aug-2024
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)          v1.1.2
- Firmware (Video Processor)    v1.3
- PROTON Updater                v1.2.0.0
- ProVideo GUI (PROTON Edition) v1.8.3

Changes:

- Improved auto-save performance by only executing it when a setter command is executed and not
  saving changes done by the auto algorithms.
- Disable LSC during bad pixel calibration to not alter the results.
- Fixed 'broadcast_master' command not correctly reporting the correct state of the device (same
  for the 'id' command).
- Fixed new broadcast master not replying with "OK" when broadcast master is set and old master
  still replying with "OK" after master was disabled.
- Fixed exposure measurement only working on the upper 5/6th of the input image and ignoring the
  lower 1/6th.
- Fixed some devices showing erratic behavior (e.g. timecode or auto algorithms not working) when
  the device is very hot (> 70°C).
- The PROTON Updater GUI now also runs on macOS on machines with an Apple M1 processor or newer
  (must be ARM64 based).

Package 2 - 22-Jul-2024
-----------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)          v1.1.1
- Firmware (Video Processor)    v1.2
- PROTON Updater                v1.1.0.0
- ProVideo GUI (PROTON Edition) v1.8.3

Changes:

- Increase AEC reaction speed for big changes in the target exposure.
- Make the system more robust: If the camera gets reset by the watchdog three times or more it now
  tries to enter a safe state which gives the user the chance to upload a new firmware.
- Add over temperature error message to 'system error' command.
- Fixed AWB speed setting having no effect which caused the auto white balance to work instantly
  instead of having a smooth transition when the detected color temperature changes.
- Fixed AWB getting stuck when the color temperature in the scene changes drastically.
- Added 'video lsc preset' command which allows selecting a pre-calibrated lens shade correction
  setting for officially supported lenses.

Package 1 - 11-Jul-2024
---------------------------------

Includes:

- Software (PROTON OS)          v1.1.0
- Firmware (Video Processor)    v1.2
- PROTON Updater                v1.0.1.0
- ProVideo GUI (PROTON Edition) v1.8.2

Initial release.
