Need help finding a tiny micro camera

[josborne]

I've asked a similar question here before, but I thought I'd try again because my requirements have changed:

I am designing a solution that has these requirements:

- Camera (and lens) needs to be very small ... eg a "bullet camera" like this one.  Smaller the better.

- Need to get up close to a subject (eg wide angle)

- Needs accurate timing so I can sync images with other data I'm acquiring (eg camera should have a shutter trigger input ... or maybe use a frame grabber that I can trigger).

- Cable should be long and connect the camera to a PC for image acquisition

- Autofocus, if possible

Any ideas?

[TiTou]

Any special requirement for camera interface (USB, FW, GigE, etc...) or resolution?

[josborne]

The minimum would be 310x240 at 30 fps.  Perhaps VGA resolution aty 60 fps would be a goal.  And anything greater would be a plus. 

To be honest, price is not a big issue.  And I don't care which interface we use, as long as it can meet the other requirements (eg be able to sync).

I did some searching and found some cool micro-cameras like these ones:

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-XC505/

http://www.elmousa.com/mn43h-micro-camera

But I am unsure how I would get these cameras to sync with my other acquired data (acquired via a DAQ card).  Normally, I would output a pulse train to fire the camera shutter (eg for firewire cameras), but most micro cameras do not have any sync input.

[TiTou]

I don't think NI still has frame grabbers for analog cameras  1407 and 1409 are no longer on the catalog.

The Sony XC505 can be triggered.

[josborne]

I'm a bit of a newbie with analog cameras.  I don't quite understand how to sync an NTSC video signal.

Does the sync input on the camera actually fire the shutter on the XC505?  For example:  If I fire the shutter at 1 Hz, then the NTSC video signal still has a refresh rate of 60 Hz?  But the image only updates itself at 1 Hz?  And then I guess I would need some kind of analog frame grabber than can be triggered also?

I guess I should read the XC505 user manual. 🙂

[TiTou]

I have to say it's not too clear in my head either. Everything I'm going to say might not be the absolute truth and I'm pretty sure you could find good info either on this section of the forum or in NI white papers. that being said, I think analog camera have 2 different sync modes, the synchronous sync mode that might not be exactly what you want because the camera is in a free-run mode (say at 25Hz) and when you send the trig, you get the next image. The other mode is the asynchronous mode you get an image when you trig. Usually with NI Analog frame grabber (1409-1410) you had to send the trig to the frame grabbers and not directly the camera and most the time you had to build your own cable to do that, actually this is the part where my knowledge is the weakest because basically when I started doing vision with LabVIEW NI announced they were going to stop supporting analog vision.

Does you camera have to be analog?

Hope this helps anyway.

[TiTou]

Maybe I wasn't so far of, see this : http://www.ni.com/white-paper/4667/en

[josborne]

Thanks for the tips.

I'd prefer NOT analog.  If I could choose, I'd go for USB or Firewire.  But the only "tiny" cameras I could find are analog.  I'd prefer not to go larger than an NF mount lens (eg if I can keep the O.D. of the entire camera & lens to under 1").

[TiTou]

Sorry, I have no experience in such small dimensions.

We mainly use Basler, Sony and Dalsa cameras, sometime we use ueye because it's USB (which means no need for frame grabber and therefore cheap solution) but USB won't fit for you since you can't trig.

If you have to go for analog camera you might need to check out this page : IMAQ version / Framegrabbers support

[BruceAmmons]

The AVT Guppy Pro is very small, but just over an inch square.  Sounds bigger than you want, but I figured I would mention it anyway.  Probably the smallest camera possible with a C-mount lens.

Bruce