Q+A CENTER

With such a large variety of cameras, selecting the best one for your machine vision application can be difficult. The following guidelines can help you make the right choice for your needs:

• Minimize the resolution to reduce data processing requirements.
• Maximize sensitivity to allow shorter exposure times (less motion blur), lower gain setting (less noise), and lower-cost optics.
• Use a monochrome rather than color camera to provide better sensitivity and minimize image-processing load.
• Select a standards-based camera interface such as 1394 or Gigabit Ethernet (GigE Vision) to reduce integration and support costs.
• Choose a software development kit or third-party software that will reduce integration headaches and maximize system reliability.
• Select a camera with a rich feature set that adapts to unforeseen requirements.

There are several other characteristics to consider when choosing a machine vision camera. Prosilica manufactures more than 50 camera models: 1394 and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE Vision), color and monochrome, VGA to 16-Megapixel resolution. Contact Prosilica to help you select the best camera for your application.

Marty Furse, CEO
Prosilica
www.prosilica.com