Last month, Andy Wilson and his German colleague Johann Bylek from Vision Systems came round to visit us. In his somewhat amusing blog post about the event, Andy Wilson writes:

Rather than providing yours truly with an easy walking tour of a German city, Johann decided to set up numerous meetings in cities as far apart as Munich, Radeburg, Jena, Bremen, Hamburg, Dresden, and Berlin.

Indeed, their trip to Bremen included a few hours at the European headquarters of The Imaging Source. Rolf Bollhorst, Stefan Geissler, Aurélie Le Fort and I met Andy Wilson and Johann Bylek to presented our full range of machine vision products, including some of our more interesting customer success stories.

You can read the rest of Andy Wilson’s report in his enlightening post Geisterbahn nach Berlin (translated: Ghost ride to Berlin) in the Vision Systems blog.

The following brief articles and press releases about The Imaging Source cameras have been published in the English and German press this month:

Imaging and Machine Vision announced a new CCD camera series:

Quality Engineering announced the new series of The Imaging Source USB 2.0 cameras:

PC Industrie similarly announced the new USB 2.0 cameras:

Inspect announced the new zoom cameras with high resolution and speed:

Computer Automation announced the 27 new USB 2.0 cameras:

We are often asked how to best clean the surface of the CCD chip. Below, for example, is a close-up of the front plate of a DMK 21AF04, showing the CCD chip behind the cameras’ C/CS mount. Accessing the CCD chip can be tricky.

Following is a list of the preferred methods to clean the surface of the cameras’ CCD chip:

1) Compressed Air From Air-Blower

Compressed air is usually sufficient to remove most foreign bodies from the surface of a CCD chip. We recommend using an air-blower, such as from Edmund Optics, and not compressed air from an aerosol. Compressed air from an aerosol may contain other chemicals (propellant, water, oil etc.) which could damage the surface of the CCD.

For details, see www.edmundoptics.com.

2) Hama Lenspen MiniPro II

A company called Hama manufactures a product, which is ideally suited to the task: Lenspen MiniPro II. It is available online and from most well-stocked photography stores. One side of the pen has a brush on it, while the other, a small cleaning surface. The later is suited to efficiently removing dirt and fingerprints.

For details, see www.amazon.co.uk.

3) Microfiber Cleaning Cloth

Although a microfiber cleaning cloth is a very viable option, it can be tricky to get the cloth onto the surface of the CCD chip through the camera’s mount opening. A cotton swab (UK: Q-Tip) can help here.

4) Pure Alcohol (at least 90%)

This can be purchased from most chemists. Never use Isopropanol, as it draws moisture from the air, which results in streaks on the surface of the CCD.

5) Alcohol Substitute

Instead of pure alcohol, Methanol or a liquid called Eclipse can be used (Eclipse is essentially Methanol). However, we do not recommend this approach, as Methanol is highly poisonous.

6) Combination Of All The Above

Of course, all approaches can be combined!

Do not worry about touching the glass in front of the CCD chip. It is pretty robust. Only by rubbing glass, sand or diamond on the surface can it be scratched.

VISION 2008 in Stuttgart, Germany is an international trade fair for machine vision and identification technologies. During the twenty years that it has been running, it has become the meeting-point for the machine vision industry.

This year, we are delighted to announce that The Imaging Source will be exhibiting. Stand number and exact location to be announced.

The trade fair takes place between November 04, 2008 and November 06, 2008 at the New Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre, Stuttgart, Germany.

I am delighted to announce that we have just published the following press release:

Bremen, Germany (April 24, 2008) - The Imaging Source, an international industrial camera manufacturer and software application developer, announces a new line of cost effective FireWire VGA and XVGA zoom cameras. Their specifications are a 4.8 - 46 mm motor zoom lens auto iris and one push auto focus. Zoom and focus are set by stepper motors, thus all adjustments can be reproduced. The iris is driven by a fast linear Hall element. An external trigger input is provided to capture images on demand. All cameras functions are software controlled and can be either set manually or automatically via an easy-to-use interface. The cameras ship with an extremely robust and stable, cast aluminum casting and with the SDK (software developer kit) “IC Imaging Control” and end-user application “IC Capture” to control the camera, display and save singular images, image sequences and image streams.

Optionally, the cameras can be equipped with a ring light system specifically designed for The Imaging Source cameras. The ring light can be powered by the camera and be controlled via a software interface.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.