Optical lenses for cameras: explore the engineering behind the capture. 

Learn more about camera optical engineering from our US-based engineering team

Camera optical lenses, such as our M12 lenses, are also known as objective lenses. These are multi-element optics constructed from plano-convex, bi-convex, plano-concave, bi-concave, meniscus, aspheric, achromatic doublets, and more. The characteristics of an optical lens contribute to the image quality output from a camera.

In our series of blog posts, we explore the engineering side of imaging optics. We describe the impact on perceptual metrics and considerations needed when building an embedded vision camera system. We also investigate how image quality impacts computer vision, as related metrics will impact lens selection.

How to Clean Camera Lens Optics and Image Sensors

Max Henkart
Oct 27, 2023 

Ever wondered about the best practices to clean a lens or image sensor? In this article we review the impact of a dirty lens and sensor.

We then discuss best practices and tools to clean optics.

How to Clean a Camera Lens
CMOS Sensor Size Table and Format Type

CMOS Sensor Size

Max Henkart
Feb 16, 2021 

The sensor format size and pixel size of digital camera impacts many performance attributes of camera.

The format type of a digital camera sensor is one of the most confusing and ridiculous concepts in the vision industry.

How to Focus a Camera 

Max Henkart
Mar 27, 2021 
Whether you're working on cameras for autonomous robotics, surveillance systems, or other projects, image resolution and sharpness can greatly impact the performance and accuracy of your embedded vision system. That's why understanding how to focus a camera lens is a must-have skill for every robotics engineer or camera hobbyist. In this guide, we provide the techniques, tools, and best practices to help you perfectly focus your camera lens.
How to focus a camera lens
What is the Resolution of a Camera Lens?

Resolution 101

Max Henkart
Jun 17, 2021 
Even the experts interchangeably use the term "Resolution" when it actually refers to four different technical metrics. We ran across this misunderstanding during a 2018 conversation within the IEEE P2020 working group... We define and explore each in this article

Lens Chief Ray Angle and Mismatch

Max Henkart
Jan 20, 2023 
The chief ray angle (CRA) of a lens and the chief ray of a sensor affect image quality factors such as color shading and vignetting.

The magnitude of impact from CRA mismatch can be...
CRA Chief Ray Angle Mismatch
Wide Angle Lenses and Fisheye Camera Lens Distortion

Wide Angle Lenses and Fisheye Camera Lens Distortion

Max Henkart
Apr 01, 2022 

Optical distortion is a third order transverse aberration. The simple explanation is that distortion is the change in magnification (angular resolution) versus image height.

GoPro's marketing team was stuck with "Fisheye" because the first product used a cropped Fisheye lens. The newer GoPros use Wide Angle lenses which are not Fisheye lenses.

An Overview Of CCTV/CMOS Lens Mount Types

Max Henkart
Fri Jul 24 2020

One of the first questions inevitably asked when designing vision systems is a variant of the following:
- Will my CS Mount Lens work with my C Camera Mount?
- Will my C Mount Lens work with my CS Camera Mount?
- What is the difference between a S Mount lens and a M12 lens?

S Mount Lenses
Raspberry Pi Video Conferencing

Raspberry Pi Video Conferencing

Max Henkart
Nov 25, 2020 
A few early users of our lenses are actively involved in the RPi community and mentioned the products in a thread. And many people were curious "well what lens should I use?"

Image Quality Summit

Max Henkart
May 16, 2022 

This post explores 12+ Image Quality Metrics and the impact on computer vision. The blog posts and video are from a talk that Max H gave during the Embedded Vision Summit 2022.

     

     

    Image Quality and Computer Vision are interdependent