How to pick an M12 lens for your robot
It comes down to three things: field of view, distortion, and aperture. They trade off against each other, and the right balance depends on what your robot's cameras actually need to do.
Field of view: coverage vs. resolution
Wider FOV means more spatial coverage but less angular resolution per pixel. For obstacle avoidance, coverage wins: a 215° fisheye kills blind spots, though it introduces heavy barrel distortion. For SLAM feature tracking, a 6mm low-distortion lens gives you cleaner feature correspondence over a narrower view. A lot of production robots run both: fisheye for surround awareness, rectilinear for the primary nav direction.
You can calculate your required FOV with our FOV calculator, or work backward from a target angle using the EFL calculator.
Distortion: what your algorithm can handle
Optical distortion hits your vision pipeline directly. ORB-SLAM, VINS-Mono, and similar systems run better with lenses under 5% barrel distortion, because real-time correction on a Jetson eats into your compute budget. The CIL023 (2.2mm, <3%) and CIL034 (3.2mm, ~0%) are the ones to reach for here.
If your obstacle detection stack already handles fisheye models (OpenCV's fisheye module, for instance), a 190° fisheye can work well despite the distortion. The software corrects it; the lens gives you the widest possible view.
Aperture: light gathering vs. depth of field
Fast apertures let in more light, which matters in warehouses, parking garages, and dusk operation. The CIL327 (2.7mm, F/1.5) is the fastest lens in this set; at a standard field of view, the CIL059 (5.9mm, F/1.7) and the CIL061 (6mm, F/1.9) are the quick options. The catch: faster aperture means shallower depth of field. Objects at different distances won't all be sharp.
If you need everything in focus from 30cm to infinity, go with F/2.0 or F/2.5. Check the DOF calculator for the hyperfocal distance on your lens-sensor combo.
Environmental protection
A warehouse AMR probably doesn't need IP rating. A delivery robot in Seattle does. Our IP67 lenses are sealed against water immersion and dust without an external housing, which saves weight and cost. If your robot gets pressure-washed, ask us about IP69K options.
Sensor compatibility
Every M12 lens has an image circle. If it's smaller than your sensor diagonal, you get dark corners (vignetting). Common robotics sensor formats:
- 1/4" (4.5mm diagonal) — the smallest common module format
- 1/3" (6.0mm diagonal) — most common robotics format, wide lens selection
- 1/2.7" (6.7mm diagonal) — a common low-light robotics format
- 1/2" (8.0mm diagonal) — higher resolution applications
Full dimensions are in our CMOS sensor size reference. If you're not sure which sensor you have, send us the datasheet and we'll recommend a match.