Abstract: An apparatus and method to control a video camera for the acquisition of a color image under varying image capture conditions includes a video camera having a red, green and blue output. The video camera is provided with a controllable iris aperture, a controllable overall RGB signal gain, independently controllable RGB signal channel gains and a controllable RGB signal channel balance. The controllable parameters are controlled by a control unit. The control unit generates signals from an image signal received from the video camera. The signals are used to correct the controllable parameters to improve camera image capture performance.