Patent ID: 7417673

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming an image of a target through imaging optics onto a light-sensitive image sensor in an imaging device, said imaging device having an adjustable optical magnification and an adjustable digital magnification, determining an amount of available illumination, determining a ratio between the optical magnification and the digital magnification based on said available illumination, and adjusting at least one of the optical magnification and the digital magnification based on said ratio, wherein the amount of available illumination is categorized as one of low, bright and medium, and said ratio is determined such that under the low illumination, the digital magnification is adjusted in priority over the optical magnification, under the medium illumination, the optical magnification is adjusted in combination with the digital magnification such that the optical magnification is adjusted to a value smaller than a maximum optical magnification and then the digital magnification is adjusted to a value smaller than a maximum digital magnification or vice versa, and under the bright illumination, the optical magnification is adjusted in priority over the digital magnification.