Abstract: A method for automatically setting illumination intensity of light sources used within either positional recognition devices or quality control devices that, in turn, are used in devices that automatically equip components on a printed circuit board or ceramic substrates. The individual light sources are successively varied and an image of a component to be placed on a printed circuit board or substrate is registered by a camera. The resulting picture elements are registered as grayscale values and stored in an image evaluation unit. The grayscale values are either represented as useful structures of the component or unwanted structures of the component dependent on the illumination intensity of the individual light sources. The stored grayscale values for all of the light sources are summed according to respective useful and unwanted structures of the component and then compared to one another.