# Camera orientation handling in Micro-Manager and pymmcoreplus

**URL:** <https://forum.microlist.org/t/camera-orientation-handling-in-micro-manager-and-pymmcoreplus/3328>\
**Category:** Software\
**Tags:** micro-manager\
**Created:** [April 29, 2026, 9:31am UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/camera-orientation-handling-in-micro-manager-and-pymmcoreplus/3328 "2026-04-29T09:31:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CellKai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@CellKai](https://forum.microlist.org/u/CellKai)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 9:31am UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/camera-orientation-handling-in-micro-manager-and-pymmcoreplus/3328/1 "2026-04-29T09:31:37Z")

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I have a working MM config that controls a NikonTi2 CSU-W1 spinning disk confocal system dual cameras. For my application, I am using [pymmcore(-plus)](https://github.com/pymmcore-plus) to load this configuration and then operate the microscope using custom python code.

**In micro-manager,** To make the live preview window of the primary camera show the same orientation as the eyepieces / to match the orientation of both cameras to each other, the orientation of the primary camera needed to be changed, which I achieve with the [Image-flipper plugin](https://micro-manager.org/Image_Flipper).

As far as I understand,  
(i) there is no other way of changing the camera orientation in micro-manager,

(ii) the setting of the image-flipper is not part of the micro-manager configuration, but instead is stored in the user settings file, and

(iii) the micro-manager configuration file does not reference the user settings file.

**In pymmcore-plus** , as far as I understand, only the micro-manager _configuration_ is loaded

Hence, my question, is the Image-flipper setting respected when using pymmcore-plus? I am asking because _I believe that it should not_, but when I actually use the code and look at the orientation of the live image that’s produce via pymmcore-plus, it matches the orientation of the live preview image the micro-manager shows.

@nico.stuurman @talley

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**Author:** ![talley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.microlist.org/talley/32/3_2.png) [@talley](https://forum.microlist.org/u/talley)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/camera-orientation-handling-in-micro-manager-and-pymmcoreplus/3328/2 "2026-04-29T19:46:09Z")

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hi @CellKai

it is true that there is no direct equivalent of the java-based Image-flipper plugin in pymmcore-plus. Your understanding is correct: there is no configuration outside of the config file you pass to `setSystemConfiguration` (which is the same file for the java app). And yes: the MMStudio (java micro-manager) user settings file has no effect on pymmcore-plus (we don’t, for example, peek in there and respect the image flipper settings anywhere).

So! I don’t immediately know how to explain what you’re seeing. but my first questions would be:

- what camera are you using?
- does the camera itself have any transpose/flip properties? and are you referencing them in the config file?
- how are you viewing the image in each case? (I assume just MMStudio for java side, but how about the python side?)