Optical lenses for cameras: explore the engineering behind the image capture. 

Learn more about camera optical engineering from our US-based engineering team

Camera optical lenses, such as our M12 lenses, are also known as objective lenses. These are multi-element optics constructed from plano-convex, bi-convex, plano-concave, bi-concave, meniscus, aspheric, achromatic doublets, and more. The characteristics of an optical lens contribute to the image quality output from a camera.

In our series of blog posts, we explore the engineering side of imaging optics. We describe the impact on perceptual metrics and considerations needed when building an embedded vision camera system. We also investigate how image quality impacts computer vision, as related metrics will impact lens selection.

How to Focus a Camera 

Max Henkart

Mar 27, 2021
 
Whether you're working on cameras for autonomous robotics, surveillance systems, or other projects, image resolution and sharpness can greatly impact the performance and accuracy of your embedded vision system. That's why understanding how to focus a camera lens is a must-have skill for every robotics engineer or camera hobbyist. In this guide, we provide the techniques, tools, and best practices to help you perfectly focus your camera lens.
How to focus a camera lens
M12 Lenses and S-Mount Lens Diameter and Thread Tolerances

What is an M12 lens

Max Henkart

Aug 16, 2024
 
An M12 Lens / S-Mount lens is a miniature lens with 12mm diameter threads. Despite the small size, these lenses can outperform DSLR camera lenses.

How to Clean a Camera Lens

Max Henkart

Oct 27, 2023
 

Ever wondered about the best practices to clean a lens or image sensor? In this article we review the impact of a dirty lens and sensor.

We then discuss best practices and tools to clean optics.

How to Clean a Camera Lens
CMOS Sensor Size Table and Format Type

CMOS Sensor Size

Max Henkart

Feb 16, 2021
 

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

The format type of a digital camera sensor is one of the most confusing and ridiculous concepts in the vision industry.

Lens Chief Ray Angle and Mismatch

Max Henkart

Jan 20, 2023
 
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.

The magnitude of impact from CRA mismatch can be...
CRA Chief Ray Angle Mismatch
What is the Resolution of a Camera Lens?

Resolution 101

Max Henkart

Jun 17, 2021
 
Even the experts interchangeably use the term "Resolution" when it actually refers to four different technical metrics. We ran across this misunderstanding during a 2018 conversation within the IEEE P2020 working group... We define and explore each in this article
Wide Angle Lenses and Fisheye Camera Lens Distortion

Wide Angle Lenses and Fisheye Camera Lens Distortion

Max Henkart

Apr 01, 2022
 

Optical distortion is a third order transverse aberration. The simple explanation is that distortion is the change in magnification (angular resolution) versus image height.

GoPro's marketing team was stuck with "Fisheye" because the first product used a cropped Fisheye lens. The newer GoPros use Wide Angle lenses which are not Fisheye lenses.

An Overview Of CCTV/CMOS Lens Mount Types

Max Henkart
Fri Jul 24 2020

One of the first questions inevitably asked when designing vision systems is a variant of the following:
- Will my CS Mount Lens work with my C Camera Mount?
- Will my C Mount Lens work with my CS Camera Mount?
- What is the difference between a S Mount lens and a M12 lens?

S Mount Lenses
Raspberry Pi Video Conferencing

Raspberry Pi Video Conferencing

Max Henkart

Nov 25, 2020
 
A few early users of our lenses are actively involved in the RPi community and mentioned the products in a thread. And many people were curious "well what lens should I use?"

Image Quality Summit

Max Henkart

May 16, 2022
 

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 during the Embedded Vision Summit 2022.

     

     

    Image Quality and Computer Vision are interdependent