X-RAY IMAGING OPTICAL CAMERA APPARATUS AND METHOD OF USE

An electronic video camera apparatus is provided for focusing light rays from object plane proximate image intensifier of a medical x-ray imaging system onto an image plane proximate a light sensor. The electronic video camera includes a lens system located between the object and image planes to focus light rays from the object plane onto the image plane. The light rays at the object plane are representative of a patient image. An optical filter is located between the object and image planes and partially blocks light rays passing there through. The optical filter includes at least first and second filter regions having different opacity. The first and second filter regions are alignable with the lens system at different times to block differing first and second amounts of light rays, respectively, associated with differing first and second x-ray amounts transmitted at different times.