Optical lenses for cameras: explore the engineering behind the 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.
CMOS Sensor Size
Feb 16, 2021
The sensor format size and pixel size of digital camera impacts nearly every performance attribute of a camera.
The format type of a digital camera sensor is one of the most confusing and ridiculous concepts in the vision industry.
How to Focus a Camera
Mar 27, 2021
Lenses are only as good as your focusing procedure. A few tips from an optical engineering consultant. Advice tidbit #1: Don't use the center! Visit for more.
Resolution 101
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
Lens Chief Ray Angle and Mismatch
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...
광각 렌즈 및 어안 카메라 렌즈 왜곡
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?
Raspberry Pi Video Conferencing
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?"
이미지 품질 서밋
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.
- Camera Exposure and Computer Vision
- 모션 블러
- 높은 다이내믹 레인지
- Resolution and Sharpness
- Shading and Vignetting
- Noise
- Fisheye Distortion and Wide Angle Lenses
- Fringing and Chromatic Aberration
