A test method for evaluating the optical insertion loss of a mechanical splice joint of two optical fibers (101, 102), comprising: using an apparatus comprising a laser source, digital video camera, a microcontroller or processor, electronic circuitry, resident memory, and means for coupling the laser output signal to one of the optical fibers to be spliced; capturing and analysing digital video images of the scattered light from at least a portion of one optical fiber and the mechanical splice joint using embedded algorithms in order to determine the quality of the mechanical splice; providing dynamic range enhancement of the camera sensor and providing background subtraction of ambient light in order to improve the estimation of the mechanical splice joint's optical insertion loss based on real-time image analysis of the mechanical splice joint; providing a pass/fail numerical, pictorial or audible indication (208, 210) of the optimum position to terminate the splice joint in order to assist an operator during the splice joint termination process; and estimating the optical insertion loss of the mechanical splice joint based on the captured images, characterized in that said providing dynamic range enhancement of the camera sensor comprises an algorithm, comprising the steps of: determining an optimal exposure time for the capturing of images; taking a background image of the mechanical splice joint with the laser source turned off; taking a foreground image of the mechanical splice joint with the laser source turned on; subtracting the background image from the foreground image to obtain a resultant image; estimating the level of noise by analysing an area of a sensor that is not illuminated by external sources and reducing the effect of noise by zeroing the pixels with level values below the estimated level of noise in the resultant image; estimating a tilt and correcting for the tilt in the resultant image; and reducing the resultant image from a 2-dimensional array to a one-dimensional array or vector. using an apparatus comprising a laser source, digital video camera, a microcontroller or processor, electronic circuitry, resident memory, and means for coupling the laser output signal to one of the optical fibers to be spliced; capturing and analysing digital video images of the scattered light from at least a portion of one optical fiber and the mechanical splice joint using embedded algorithms in order to determine the quality of the mechanical splice; providing dynamic range enhancement of the camera sensor and providing background subtraction of ambient light in order to improve the estimation of the mechanical splice joint's optical insertion loss based on real-time image analysis of the mechanical splice joint; providing a pass/fail numerical, pictorial or audible indication (208, 210) of the optimum position to terminate the splice joint in order to assist an operator during the splice joint termination process; and estimating the optical insertion loss of the mechanical splice joint based on the captured images, characterized in that said providing dynamic range enhancement of the camera sensor comprises an algorithm, comprising the steps of: determining an optimal exposure time for the capturing of images; taking a background image of the mechanical splice joint with the laser source turned off; taking a foreground image of the mechanical splice joint with the laser source turned on; subtracting the background image from the foreground image to obtain a resultant image; estimating the level of noise by analysing an area of a sensor that is not illuminated by external sources and reducing the effect of noise by zeroing the pixels with level values below the estimated level of noise in the resultant image; estimating a tilt and correcting for the tilt in the resultant image; and reducing the resultant image from a 2-dimensional array to a one-dimensional array or vector. determining an optimal exposure time for the capturing of images; taking a background image of the mechanical splice joint with the laser source turned off; taking a foreground image of the mechanical splice joint with the laser source turned on; subtracting the background image from the foreground image to obtain a resultant image; estimating the level of noise by analysing an area of a sensor that is not illuminated by external sources and reducing the effect of noise by zeroing the pixels with level values below the estimated level of noise in the resultant image; estimating a tilt and correcting for the tilt in the resultant image; and reducing the resultant image from a 2-dimensional array to a one-dimensional array or vector.