1stVision Inc. - Machine Vision Articles - Page 2 of 60

January 6, 2026January 6, 2026

AVT updates bring new Alvium features

Here are some cool new features. At least they’re cool if you already use AVT Alvium cameras and want to get even more out of them. Conversely the features may get your attention to give Alvium a look for your next application.

We call out five specific new features (or feature sets):

Liquid lens autofocus controls – great for logistics applications: fast focus change
Power saving standby mode – heat minimization for embedded designs
Improved recovery from over-temperature power savings mode – automated recovery
More GenICam features for V4L2 Video for Linux – great to have Linux options
Additional registers and controls – if some DRA is good, more is better

… especially for the Alvium camera families, including USB3 and MIPI CSI-2, and 1 GigE and 5 GigE models.

Alvium USB3, MIPI CSI-2, 1 GigE and 5 GigE compact and powerful cameras – Courtesy AVT – a TKH brand

Call us at 978-474-0044 to speak to one of our experienced sales engineers. Or tell us what you’d like to know more about – whether concepts, features, or pricing – and we’ll get back to you:

Click to contact — Give us some brief idea of your application and we will contact you to discuss camera options.

Liquid Lens Autofocus Controls

If you’re new to liquid lenses, see our prior blog for examples and an overview. Liquid lenses can change focus within milliseconds, far faster than mechanical apertures.

Below you can see the hardware configuration, which new new autofocus controls can utilize.

So AVT provides the lens controlling capability on the camera side, and you can optionally connect a liquid lens if that would help your application. Naturally AVT Alvium cameras may also be used with conventional lenses, including S, CS, C, closed, open, and bare-board – range of options varies slightly by model. Please review when ordering or confer with us per adage “measure twice cut once”.

Power saving standby mode

There are at least to reasons why you might be interested in power savings. The layman’s view might be to preserve the environment or save on energy costs. But compact sensors and cameras don’t use a lot of power, often just +/- 1 watt. The primary motivator, for embedded systems designers, is to reduce heat, during periods when no imaging is required. That in turn enhances image quality and prolongs system life.

Power saving mode enabled vs. disabled – Courtesy AVT – a TKH Vision brand

Improved Recovery from over temperature mode

When the camera goes into over temperature mode, it automatically stops power draw as a self-protection mechanism. In firmware V13 this required a camera reboot to resume imaging. Now in V15 the camera resumes normal function without requiring reboot.

(More) GenICam features for V4L2 Video for Linux

If you favor video for Linux (V4L2) drivers and APIs for your development and production controls, below see GenICam features now available to you.

Additional Registers and Controls

In addition to all the registers previously available on Alvium’s MIPI CSI-2 cameras, below are a number of new registers, whose names suggest their meaning and use. One may control each feature through any of GenICam APIs, V4L2 Video for Linux, or by Direct Register Access (DRA) memory addressing. Whichever method you prefer.

New registers available for DRA – Courtesy AVT – a TKH Vision brand

Manuals for all AVT cameras and SDKs are downloadable, of course. Drill in on any feature or attribute of interest.

1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera and components selection. With a large portfolio of cameras, lenses, cables, NIC cards and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!

About you: We want to hear from you! We’ve built our brand on our know-how and like to educate the marketplace on imaging technology topics… What would you like to hear about?… Drop a line to info@1stvision.com with what topics you’d like to know more about.

January 6, 2026January 8, 2026

JAI prism-based 5 GigE cameras for superior color

If monochrome sensors and methods aren’t enough for your application, a machine vision color camera may be needed. And if color is needed, is “good enough” from a single sensor with a Bayer filter all you need? Or do you need the precision of a prism-based 3 sensor camera, one for each of R, G, and B? See our whitepaper Considerations for Color Machine Vision Cameras.

Prism-based 3-sensor imaging vs. interpolated Bayer mosaic sensors

Bryce Bayer, the engineer at Eastman Kodak whose name is associated with his Bayer filter innovation, created a very compact and efficient way to layer a color filter atop a monochrome sensor. The vast majority of today’s color cameras – in both machine vision and consumer imaging – utilize precisely such a color filter mechanism to interpolate color. When the resolution is sufficiently fine, the rendered image is typically good enough for many applications.

But “good enough” for some isn’t the same as good enough for all

Interpolation is a form of estimation – in the case of a Bayer filter its design presumes that the Red, Green, and Blue values between each of the “true” measurements of those values is the average of the values at the accurate points. So the in-between values are computed, and may or may not correlate to the true color present at the source.

For certain machine vision, industrial imaging, and medical applications, maximum color accuracy is essential.

What’s best for my application?

Read on, for more detail. Or give us a call at 978-474-0044. Or tell us about your requirements and we’ll contact you.

For certain applications, color accuracy and fidelity is essential

Applications note provides further information – Courtesy JAI

See corresponding applications note for details – Courtesy JAI

See applications note for more – Courtesy JAI

All four images and and associated texts above – Courtesy JAI

JAI adds 3 new 5.1 Mpix cameras to its Apex Series

5.1 Megapixel prism-based 3 sensor camera – Courtesy JAI

Previously JAI’s Apex prism-based camera series included 1.6 Mpix and 3.2 Mpix models. Three new models join the series, at 5.1 Megapixels each. The new members all use the same SONY IMX548, one of the Pregius S sensors.

If the new 5.1 Mpix models all use the same sensors, why are there three models? Because there are three interface options, depending on your need for speed.

5 GigE model: 32 fps
CoaXpress model: 75 fps
Camera Link model: 55 fps

Numerous features and benefits

There are many features designed into the Apex series cameras, including binning, single and multi-region ROI, chromatic aberration correction, and automatic level control. Download a manual for details. Or call us at 978-474-0044.

Feature highlight: Per-channel exposure control

Since the rationale for a 3 sensor prism camera is color performance, the per-channel exposure control feature helps to achieve that goal. By adjusting the exposure time for each channel separately, the camera increases signal without amplifying noise.

Per-channel exposure control – Courtesy JAI

Call us at 978-474-0044 to learn more about JAI Apex cameras. Tell us about your application goals and requirements, and we’ll help you determine the best camera, lens, lighting, filters, and software. It’s what we do.

November 7, 2025

IDS integrates Sony IMX900 into uEye low-cost models

Small housings and powerful sensors didn’t used to appear together. But thanks to ever more compact electronics, and good engineering, one can have both. IDS has expanded its portfolio by integrating the Sony Pregius IMX900 sensor into selected models of the compact USB3 uEye XCP, XLS and GigE uEye LE series.

uEye low cost cameras with Sony Pregius IMX900 sensor – Courtesy IDS

The photo above provides an at-a-glance overview of the various board-level, housing, and lens-mount options, each of which is classified as low cost and very compact.

If you prefer a tabular view like the following, with clickable links to specs and the option to request a quote, go to 1stVision’s cameras page, and scroll down to the selector page with drop-down filters, at https://www.1stvision.com/cameras/industrialCameras

The image below is an annotated screenshot, where the manufacturer (IDS) and the sensor (Sony IMX900) bring you to the 10 distinct camera models utilizing this sensor.

Sony’s Pregius sensor evolution

Sony is an industry leader with its Pregious sensor series, on which we’ve written previously with an overview. The Sony IMX900 is in the Pregious S 4th generation, extraordinarily sensitive thanks to Sony innovations including the back-illuminated stacked architecture.

Back-illumination improves sensor quantum efficiency – Courtesy IDS and Sony

VIS plus NIR sensitivity

We won’t bother showing VIS images in monochrome or color but of course they look great. But calling out a special capability of the Sony IMX900 – it’s also very sensitive to near infrared (NIR). Besides being part of the Pregious group, the IMX900 utilized STARVIS 2 technology, yielding NIR performance.

Yet another Sony IMX900 feature: Quad HDR

While high dynamic range (HDR) features aren’t new per se, Quad HDR on the Sony IMX900 takes HDR to another level. Getting the dark sections sufficiently saturated while not oversaturating the brighter regions is really evident with Quad HDR below.

Quad HDR generates a balanced image – Courtesy IDS

The feature list goes on and on

Call us at 978-474-4000 to learn more about this remarkable sensor and the range of IDS uEye cameras into which the sensor has been designed.

November 7, 2025November 12, 2025

VIS-SWIR solutions – the problems it solves

While we humans can only see what we’ve named to be visible light, bees can see UV light! Some camera sensors register IR wavelengths! Some cameras can sense both visible light and on through NIR and SWIR.

In this piece we focus on applications that benefit from combined VIS-SWIR solutions, from 400 nm through 2.5 nm.

Deconstructing the electromagnetic spectrum into it’s commonly known constituent regions

Example applications

Just to whet the appetite, consider the 4 sets of image pairs below. In each case, the leftmost image was captured with visible wavelengths, while the righthand image utilized SWIR portions of the spectrum. These pairs were chosen to highlight the compelling power of SWIR to identify features that are not apparent in the visible portion of the spectrum.

VIS-SWIR image pairs – Courtesy Allied Vision – a TKH company

For certain applications, one wouldn’t need the human-visible images, of course, as with machine vision the whole point is to automate the image processing and corresponding actions. So for counterfeit banknote detection, bottle fill level monitoring, materials identification, or crop monitoring, one might just design for the SWIR portion of the spectrum and ignore the VIS.

*Vein imaging application overlays SWIR image of veins into visible image of patient forearm –* *Image courtesy TAMRON*

But some applications might benefit from both the VIS and the SWIR images. For example, the vein imaging application might require a VIS reference image as well as a SWIR-specific image, for patient education and/or medical records.

*Monitor moisture levels in crops from airborne drone – Image courtesy TAMRON*

For the crop monitoring application above, the VIS spectrum clearly orients trees, hills, buildings, and roadways. Meanwhile pseudo-color-mapping shows the varied moisture levels as sensed in the SWIR portion of the spectrum.

The range of potential applications combining VIS and SWIR is staggering. One can improved on one’s own or a competitor’s previous application. Or innovate something altogether new.

Sensors that register both VIS and SWIR wavelengths

Sony’s IMX992 and IMX993 sensors utilize Sony’s SenSWIR technology, such that a single sensor and camera may be deployed across the combined VIS and SWIR portions of the spectrum. Without such sensors, a VIS SWIR solution would require at least two separate cameras – one each for VIS and SWIR, respectively. That would add unnecessary expense, takes up more space, and require camera and image synchronization.

Now there are cameras, such as several in Allied Vision’s Alvium series, in which Sony’s SenSWIR sensors are embedded. With several interface options, including mipi, USB3 Vision, and 5GigE Vision:

Mipi, USB3 Vision, and 5GigE Vision interface options – Courtesy Allied Vision – a TKH Company

Lens manufacturers doing their part

One of the beauties of the free-market system, together with agreements on standards for interfaces and lens mounts, is that each innovator and manufacturer can focus on what he does best. Sensor manufacturers bring out new sensors. Camera designers embed those sensors and provide programming controls, communications interfaces, and lens mounts. And optics professionals design and produce lenses. The benefits from a range of choices, performance options, and price points.

Navitar VIS-SWIR lenses

Navitar’s ZOOM 7000-2 macro lens imaging system delivers superb optical performance and image quality for visible and SWIR imaging. Their robust design ensures reliability even in harsh environments. ZOOM 7000-2 macro lenses are ideal for applications, such as machine vision, scientific and medical imaging applications.

ZOOM 7000-2 VIS-SWIR lens – Courtesy Navitar

In fact there are three models in the series:

Each model has its application – but only the middle one is designed explicitly for VIS-SWIR – Courtesy Navitar

Kowa FC24M multispectral lenses

Kowa’s FC24M C-mount lens series are manufactured with wide-band multi-coating. That minimizes flare and ghosting from VIS through NIR. These lenses are also compelling for a number of other reasons, including wide working range (as close as 15 cm MOD), durable construction, and a unique close distance aberration compensation mechanism.

FC24M C-mount lens series – Courtesy Kowa

That “floating feature” creates stable optical performance at various working distances. Internal lens groups move independently of each other, which optimizes alignment compared to traditional lens design.

Tamron Wide-band SWIR lenses

Other lensing options include Tamron’s Wide-band SWIR lenses. While the name says SWIR, in fact they are VIS-SWIR. Designed for compatibility with Sony’s IMX990 and IMX991 SenSWIR sensors, you have even more lens choices. Call us at 978-474-0044 if you’d like us to help you navigate to best-fit components in cameras, lensing, and lighting, for your particular application.

1stVision Inc. – Machine Vision Articles

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