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High Res Camera review

Posted by Andrew Van Der Plaats on January 31, 2011 at 11:00am

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High Res Camera Review

 

 Click the link above if you're interested in reviewing some of the better

High Res cameras which are available, just make sure to hold onto your

wallet.  One model, made here in the US bya  firm named Imperx runs

$4,700.  Of course the image quality is a lot better than you're apt to

get using a plastic lens pinhole model from China.

 

Tags: camera, high, res
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Comments

  • Michael Zaffuto January 31, 2011 at 5:56pm
    Take notice that better camera use Global Electronic Shutter, as opposed to the usual and very annoying Rolling Shutter.  The Global shutter works by capturing an entire video frame at once, and reading out the entire frame.  The Rolling Shutter outputs the video frame line by line.  When your Quad or Plane is moving quickly, you will notice floaty sections of the video that aren't in sync with each other, sometimes its very apparent when the propellers are in view and they have a curved appearance to them.  A global shutter avoids this and produces video that is much more pleasing.  Other than esthetics, if you are processing video features, artifacts introduced by the rolling shutter can produce a frame where points of interest are artificially distorted relative to each other and can affect your algorithm in negative ways.
  • Cliff-E January 31, 2011 at 5:28pm

    You guys may want to look at uEye cameras as alternatives. We have a bunch of 8MP versions here with CS lens for specifically megapixel cameras (a must!).

     

    A full setup with wireless can run around $2K (camera is ~$700) and we run them at 3.1MP at 12fps. They can be had in USB or GigE.

  • Jack Crossfire January 31, 2011 at 4:40pm

    Where's the example image taken by it?  As far as we know, the cost is due to the availability of credit & a primary customer with an unlimited borrowing capacity, whatever organization that might be.  We've certainly seen grad students building similar C-mount cameras for a lot less money.  This one is an F mount, 4.2fps at full resolution.  Cut up the customer's credit card & see how much it costs.

     

     

  • MarcS January 31, 2011 at 2:19pm

    Hi,

    since I´m working with some of these sorts of cameras (even in UAV´s) here my comments about them:

    - The high price has several reasons: as said, low quantities. It´s mostly designed for industrial appications, so the housing and electronic is stable. In comparison to consumer cameras, higher grade CCD-Chips are used, meaning they have much less hot pixels (always bright), these are erased elecronically in consumer cameras...

    -Almost any of these Industrial cameras need a computer to capture the images (some "smart cameras" do it internally). Interfaces can be GigEthernet, Firewire or USB, and they will give you raw images in most cases, so think about data streams!! We are talking about 1byte per pixel... at 30fps and 2Mpix = 60Mbytes/s...

    I don´t think an RQ-11 uses this kind of camera. I think we would wonder how "cheap" the 30k$ plane looks inside :-)

     

    So, compared to high grade consumer cameras, the benefit you get from such a camea are: better CCD, choice of different lenses, ability to calibrate (very important in science!).

    If you "only" want to get good aerial pictures, buy a high grade consumer cam!

     

     

     

  • Andrew Van Der Plaats January 31, 2011 at 1:16pm

      I'm afraid I don't know of any footage, but what I did come away with from speaking to the

    representative who called to quote me the price, these aren't the sort you're apt to find in

    any of the amateur stuff, but rather in UAVs like the real RQ-11, etc. 

  • Andrew Van Der Plaats January 31, 2011 at 12:51pm

    Apparently part of the reason for the cost is in the size of the image garthering sensor.
    Not sure if this one requires a computer to control it or not, but it does have a Kodak

    sensor, in a housing which can withstand both shock and vibration.  Other, less expensive 

    versions feature Sony sensors.  Some come with 'C' mounts, which makes them easier

    to swap out between platforms.    

  • hamish January 31, 2011 at 12:44pm

    seriously, for 4700?

     

    What am i missing !?  what qualifies these to cost so much !?

This reply was deleted.