Beware of EMVA 1288 data!

Many camera manufacturers are now putting up EMVA 1288 data. This is test suite created by the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) that give you the characteristics and performance of cameras, e.g. S/N ratio, noise, etc. , and there are specifications on how to run the tests.

Please note that there is a significant amount of variance allowed within the tests. Each manufacturer has their own test setup, so comparing sensors or product lines from a specific manufacturer is very appropriate.

Comparing results between different manufacturers, especially looking at small details is NOT appropriate. For instance, if Manufacturer A’s test has a 5% variance on what Manufacturer B’s test is on the same sensor, but the difference between the two manufacturers is 5%, there is no valid conclusion! The result is within the variance. Do NOT get sucked into this comparison war.

The EMVA test produces a 30 page report for each specific camera test, testing is across multiple wavelengths, etc. Results that are given in tabular format with one number for each camera are not really a good picture of the test results to compare across manufacturers.

If you want further details, please contact 1stVision. We have conducted many comparison tests and can provide practical advice and discuss it in context of your application.

November 1, 2017October 6, 2021

Teledyne Dalsa TurboDrive 2.0 breaks past GigE limits now with 6 levels of compression

Teledyne Dalsa introduces TurboDrive 2.0 for their Genie Nanos

With the introduction of the Genie Nano came Turbodrive which allowed ‘faster GigE than GigE’ speeds. Turbodrive is a lossless hardware encoding scheme that potentially reduces the amount of data to be transmitted from the camera to the computer. Dalsa’s Nanos, which are priced identical to the competition, offers the users the ability to go faster at no extra cost. Note that the user can turn on or off the encoding.

However, the encoding scheme is data content dependent, and therefore if your data varies a lot within an image the compression is minimal. If your data varies a lot from image to image, then using the encoding means that only certain frames will get a speedup resulting in an inconsistent data transfer rate.

Teledyne Dalsa has just recently introduced TurboDrive 2.0, a firmware upgrade for all Nanos. The major enhancement is that now TurboDrive offers multiple levels of encoding. Level 0 is lossless, and each successive level has some potential lossy amount.

The table below indicates quality level, image compression ratio (absolute worst case scenario) and effective bandwidth gain

As you can see, at level 6, you have a worst case compression of 0.33, yet a speed up of 3. Note, this is a worst case situation so you might get a speed up of 3x, yet be at 0.8. The algorithm is data dependent! (more about this in the tech primer)

Depending on the application, various compression levels provide minimal degradation. The following images are shown for comparisons using the varying quality levels.

As you can see, even at level 4, there is very little degradation in the image. It is easy to imagine that with this image, you can still do your image processing yet get a speed up of 68%!

Level 0 “Lossless” to Level 6 indicate the quality level in the images.

Dalsa Nano Turbodrive quality level comparisons — Quality level comparisons

Learn more by clicking the icon below for the comprehensive application note!

Teledyne Dalsa Turbodrive application note — To learn more about Teledyne Dalsa TurboDrive 2.0, please download the application note for full details.

1stVision has a ton of resources to learn about TurboDrive technology in general. Please visit our dedicated Teledyne Dalsa Turbo Drive resource page HERE

Related Blog posts:

How do you get the most pixels for your money? Check out the new Dalsa Nano C4900 camera!

Teledyne Dalsa Nano XL-M4090 cameras – 16MP cameras are now faster, cheaper and smaller!

Teledyne Dalsa Nano XL-M5100 cameras providing 25MP resolution for < $6K!

September 27, 2017February 7, 2018

Allied Vision’s high-resolution Prosilica GT now with 12, 16 and 25MP ON Semi PYTHON sensors

Allied Vision extends its Prosilica GT Large Format camera platform with three high-resolution ON Semi PYTHON image sensors (Python 12K, Python 16K & Python 25K)

Combined with robust thermal housing designed to operate in extended temperature ranges and fluctuating lighting conditions, the new Prosilica GT Large Format cameras are ideal for high-definition imaging applications with demanding requirements of robustness and design-in flexibility. They provide a great option for high-quality imaging for anyone looking to switch over from existing CCD cameras to CMOS cameras with similar resolutions and optical formats.

Features include:

Extended temperature range (-20 deg. C to + 50 deg. C)
NIR sensitivity up to 1100nm
Modular concept providing various lens mounts (M58, M42, and EF-mount)
Fixed Pattern noise correction, Defect Pixel Correction, and Trigger over Ethernet.

Prosilica GT5120, Prosilica GT4096, and Prosilica GT4090 at a glance

See full specification for the series below:

Prosilica GT5120, 5120 x 5120, 25MP

Prosilica GT4096, 4096 x 4096, 16MP
This is a great replacement for the KAI-16000 CCD sensors!

Prosilica GT4090, 4096 x 3092, 12MP

Now that you have a great high resolution camera, what lens works best?

High resolution cameras with the ON Semi Python sensors are great, but only as good as the lenses you use! It is imperative to have the sensor sizes matched with the lens formats. Additionally, we need to make sure the lens resolution is adequate for the image sensor pixel size.

To aid in the lens selection, we have the following recommendation on lens series. Recommendations as follows

Prosilica GT5120, 5120 x 5120, 25MP: This camera has a 32.58mm diagonal image sensor, so a F-mount lens is required. Two options are Kowa and Schneider
KOWA – F mount series
Schneider – F mount series

Prosilica GT4096, 4096 x 4096, 16MP: This camera has a 26.06mm diagonal image sensor, also requiring a F-mount lens.
KOWA – F mount series
Schneider – F mount series

Prosilica GT4090, 4096 x 3092, 12MP : This camera has a 23.09mm diagonal image sensor which falls into a 4/3″ format.
KOWA 4/3″ lens series

As a note, as the pixel size is 4.5um, this is not as demanding on the lens resolution and will only require 111 line pairs/mm (lp/mm) making these adequate selections.

Need more help in understanding lens terminology and format sizes? Here are some related links

1stVision has experienced engineers to help you develop and further understand the best camera and lens combination for your application.

August 30, 2017August 11, 2022

Learn about 1stVision’s new OEM 1” machine vision lenses which provide excellent price vs performance ratios

For many years 1stVision has offered several lines of OEM machine vision lenses. These lenses are ‘unbranded’ but they are made with the glass of one of the big three Japanese optical manufacturers.

1^st Vision lenses have excellent optical performance for a great price currently offering a product line designed for a 2/3” image formats with 2MP and 3MP resolutions.

Click here to see the full line of OEM lenses here and request a quote

Advantages
The OEM machine vision lenses offer some distinct advantages:

They are less expensive than similarly performing ‘branded’ lenses
When designed into instruments for resale, all issues come back to the original manufacturer. The end user cannot bypass the manufacturer, ensuring you, when your users have problems, you know about them!
With a good price point, the 1″ format can be used for all smaller sensor sizes using the “sweet spot” of the lens!

What’s new? OEM 1” Optical format machine vision lens.

Recently, 1stVision have begun offering a new OEM line of 1” format, high performing 2 and 3 MP lenses, which offers all the above advantages, but you can now use it with the new Sony Pregius and On Semi Python sensors that require lens optical formats greater than 2/3” (For example the Sony Pregius 2MP ( IMX 174, IMX249 ), 8.9MP ( IMX267, IMX255 ) and ON-SEMI 5MP Python 5000 sensors ) Search on the image sensors here

Click here now to view the new product line and request a quote

1^st Vision maybe a distributor, but we are really your value-added vision consultants! With combined experience of over 100 years, we can help discuss the optical performance, how it relates to your image sensor and help you in the design process. Please contact us to start a conversation