Machine vision cameras comes with the following specifications:
- Resolution – The higher the better, but not always. There is a tradeoff with pixel size and SNR.
- Pixel size – The bigger the better SNR and low light performance
- Bits per pixel – Higher the better performance in machine vision applications but higher bit depth also means higher data transmission bandwidth requirements
- Frames per second (FPS) – The higher the FPS the better the camera can capture fast events but limited due to data transmission bandwidths
- Interface – MIPI, USB, Ethernet, GMSL2 etc. depends on distance to computer or edge processor
- Trigger – Fast synchronization using hardware triggers or slower sync. using software triggers
- Integrated strobe controller – Can be used to control illumination sources such as LED flash lights.
- Temperature range – Usually 0 to 50 C for commercial grade cameras and -25 to 80 C for industrial, -40 to 125 C for automotive and -55 to 125 C for aerospace and defense
- Shock and vibration resistance – often a requirement for automotive, aerospace and defense requirements
- Power consumption – Lower the better but often depends on enclosure
- Mechanical dimensions – Limited by applications
A curated list of camera vendors will come soon! Stay tuned.