A teleoperated surgical system comprising: a controller configured to be coupled to an illuminator and to a camera, the controller being configured to maintain a predetermined target brightness of a displayed scene, the displayed scene being a scene in a frame in a video stream received from the camera, the controller comprising a a camera control unit and an illumination controller; the illumination controller configured to control an output optical power from the illuminator in response to commands from the camera control unit; and the camera control unit coupled to the illumination controller and configured to be coupled to the camera and to receive the video stream from the camera, the camera control unit comprising: a first control loop configured to automatically adjust one or both of a value of a camera exposure time of the camera and a video pipeline gain; and a second control loop configured to automatically command, based on the value of the camera exposure time, the illumination controller to change the output optical power from a first output optical power level to a second output optical power level and the camera to correspondingly change the camera exposure time synchronized with the change in output optical power from a first exposure time value to a second exposure time value so that the subsequent frame in the video stream is captured by the camera with the second exposure time value and from reflected light, the reflected light being light from the illuminator having the second output optical power prior to being reflected. a controller configured to be coupled to an illuminator and to a camera, the controller being configured to maintain a predetermined target brightness of a displayed scene, the displayed scene being a scene in a frame in a video stream received from the camera, the controller comprising a a camera control unit and an illumination controller; the illumination controller configured to control an output optical power from the illuminator in response to commands from the camera control unit; and the camera control unit coupled to the illumination controller and configured to be coupled to the camera and to receive the video stream from the camera, the camera control unit comprising: a first control loop configured to automatically adjust one or both of a value of a camera exposure time of the camera and a video pipeline gain; and a second control loop configured to automatically command, based on the value of the camera exposure time, the illumination controller to change the output optical power from a first output optical power level to a second output optical power level and the camera to correspondingly change the camera exposure time synchronized with the change in output optical power from a first exposure time value to a second exposure time value so that the subsequent frame in the video stream is captured by the camera with the second exposure time value and from reflected light, the reflected light being light from the illuminator having the second output optical power prior to being reflected. a first control loop configured to automatically adjust one or both of a value of a camera exposure time of the camera and a video pipeline gain; and a second control loop configured to automatically command, based on the value of the camera exposure time, the illumination controller to change the output optical power from a first output optical power level to a second output optical power level and the camera to correspondingly change the camera exposure time synchronized with the change in output optical power from a first exposure time value to a second exposure time value so that the subsequent frame in the video stream is captured by the camera with the second exposure time value and from reflected light, the reflected light being light from the illuminator having the second output optical power prior to being reflected.