I am very happy to announce that we have been able to dramatically reduce the price of most of our cameras, which ship with a 1024×768 resolution.
For more details, please take a look at the products’ web site:
Please do not hesitate to contact us, if you would like a quotation for any of the above cameras, or indeed, would like to talk to us about any matter related to image processing or machine vision.
Please Note: This blog post is part of a series of five posts altogether.
The posts include: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
The bewildering variety of optical components, as well as “historical legacy issues” originating from the world of picture tubes, lead to different mistakes when selecting these components. In the following you will find the three most basic misunderstandings:
Incorrect: The lens format and the camera format have to be identical.
Correct: The lens format should preferably be larger than the CCD format since optical flaws appear at the rim of the lens.
Incorrect: If the lens format is larger than the CCD format it has to have a larger/smaller focal length.
Correct: The focal length exclusively depends on the CCD format, the working distance and the
object size.
Incorrect: Extension rings increase/decrease the depth of field.
Correct: Extension rings decrease the minimal working distance.
There are two basic reasons for blurred images:
• The lens quality is lower than the quality of modern CCD chips. The Pentax M Series recommended in this white paper has been especially designed to work with modern CCD chips. Wide-angle lenses, however, have weaknesses due to their construction.
• The lens setup is incorrectly arranged. This usually leads to extremely blurred images. In such cases please proceed as follows:
C Mount lens / CS Mount camera:
Please check whether a 5 mm extension ring has been screwed between the camera and the lens. The Imaging Source exclusively manufactures CS mount cameras. Each of the cameras is shipped with a 5 mm extension ring.
CS Mount lens / CS Mount camera:
If you have accidentally screwed a 5 mm extension ring between the camera and the lens, you will only be able to focus on close objects.
CS Mount lens / C Mount camera:
This configuration only allows to focus on very close objects. If this is not your aim, then you have to use a CS mount camera. The Imaging Source exclusively manufactures CS mount cameras.
“Sticking” extension rings:
If you previously have used the camera or the lens with a thin extension ring, it often “sticks” to either of them. In such cases you are not able to focus to infinity for no apparent reason.
(The End.)
Our Japanese reseller Argo exhibited at the Vision Show (Spring 2008) in Yokohama, Japan last week. Below are some photos of the event and in particular of their stand:
Please Note: This blog post is part of a series of five posts altogether.
The posts include: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
In the field of digital image processing, we have a standardized lens mount with two variants: C mount and CS mount. This leads to four combinations (see image on the right), one of which does not work: CS mount lenses can not be used with C mount cameras.
If you, on the other hand, would like to attach a C mount lens to a CS mount camera previously simply screw a 5 mm extension ring into the camera.
If Step 3 (How to deal with very small working distances) should have turned out to require an additional extension ring, simply put it between the camera and the lens (like a grommet).
Please note: The Imaging Source exclusively manu–
factures CS mount cameras. Each of the cameras is
shipped with a 5 mm extension ring.
Special case: Wide-angle lenses
Very large objects and/or small working distances often force us to use lenses with very small focal lengths. The following example depicts the selection of such wide-angle lenses:
Waste sorting:
• Object width = 700 mm
• Working distance = 500 mm
• CCD format = 1/4″ (CCD width = 3.2 mm)
In this case the focal length is 2.3 mm and thus one of the lowest commercially available. Therefore, we use the Computar T 2314 FICS-3 (see table below).
Computar wide-angle lenses are used for applications which require the lowest focal lengths.
Please note: These lenses are only available as CS mount versions and therefore can not be used with C
mount cameras.
Please note: The optical quality of wide-angle lenses falls short of the quality of “normal” lenses. This may be a crucial point in the context of visualization purposes and/or customer presentations since a bad image quality often rubs off on the complete system.
(To be continued …)
Please Note: This blog post is part of a series of five posts altogether.
The posts include: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
Especially in the case of small objects, the working distance may be smaller than the selected lenses minimal working distance (MOD). In this case, we decrease the minimal working distance by putting extension rings between the lens and the camera. We will see details at Step 4 (Setup). The following example depicts the selection of an extension ring:
Inspection of a birthmark:
• Object width = 5 mm
• Working distance = 30 mm
• CCD format = 1/4″ (CCD width = 3.2 mm)
In this case the focal length is 14.7 mm and thus we select the H1214-M(KP). Its minimal object distance (MOD) is 0.25 m and thus exceeds considerably the required working distance of 3 cm. The table below indicates the use of a 5 mm extension ring.
(To be continued …)
