Optical Engineering & Camera Engineering Technical Blog

Active Alignment for Camera Modules

Active alignment positions a lens to the image sensor in six degrees of freedom while measuring MTF live, then locks it with UV-cure adhe...

Sensor Size and Lens Compatibility

Match a lens to your sensor: image circle vs sensor diagonal, vignetting and corner shading, and relative illumination in machine vision.

Chief Ray Angle (CRA) and Sensor Mismatch

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.

What Is a Telecentric Lens?

What a telecentric lens is: object-space telecentricity, how it removes perspective error for gauging, and low-distortion alternatives.

Lens Aberrations in Machine Vision

The lens aberrations that limit machine vision: field curvature, astigmatism, chromatic and spherical aberration, how each degrades image...

How to Read MTF Curves

How to read MTF curves: MTF vs spatial frequency and vs field, sagittal and tangential, Nyquist matching by pixel pitch, and design vs me...

Spatial Resolution in Machine Vision

Spatial resolution in machine vision: mm per pixel, minimum detectable feature size, the diffraction limit, and the Airy disk explained.

Working Distance and Minimum Object Distance

Working distance and minimum object distance in machine vision: how they differ, how to measure them, and how they drive lens and focal-l...

Depth of Field in Machine Vision

Depth of field for machine vision: the four DOF drivers, circle of confusion from pixel pitch, hyperfocal distance, diffraction limits, a...

Machine Vision Field of View

Calculate machine vision field of view from focal length and sensor size, understand angle of view, and avoid the common FOV pitfalls. Wi...

What Is F-Number in Machine Vision?

F-number explained for machine vision: how aperture sets exposure, depth of field, and the diffraction limit, plus how to choose F/# for ...

Lens Mount Guide: M12 vs C-Mount vs CS-Mount

Compare specs, adapters, sensor coverage. Engineering guide for machine vision. M12 lens (S-Mount) mount: M12×0.5mm thread. CS-mount: 12....

What Is an M12 Lens? (S-Mount Lenses)

An M12 Lens / S-Mount lens is a miniature lens with 12mm diameter threads. Despite the small size, these lenses can outperform DSLR camer...

How to Choose Focal Length for Machine Vision

Choose machine vision focal length: the EFL formula, sensor size and working distance inputs, and step-by-step lens selection with worked...

Image Sensor Selection for Machine Vision

Select a machine vision image sensor: resolution, sensor format and size, global vs rolling shutter, and how to pair the sensor with the ...

What Is a C-Mount Lens?

What a C-mount lens is: the 17.526mm flange focal distance, 1-inch 32-TPI thread, manual iris control, and CS-mount compatibility.

What Is a Low Distortion Lens?

What a low distortion lens is: barrel vs pincushion vs TV distortion, why it matters for measurement, and how to spec distortion in machi...

CMOS Sensor Size Chart and Format Guide

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

What Is Image Noise?

High Dynamic Range (HDR) in Cameras

Motion Blur in Machine Vision

Camera Exposure Explained

Image Quality Metrics for Computer Vision

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 ...

What Is Resolution? Cameras and Displays

Even the experts interchangeably use the term "Resolution" when it actually refers to four different technical metrics. We ran across thi...