Sunex — RoboInd Global

Overview

The starting point is the format size which is linked to the effective area of the imager. The format size definition comes from pre-electronic imaging era. It does not directly represent the diagonal size of the effective area. Commonly seen imager formats and their actual physical sizes are listed below. The imager resolution is the number of effective pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions. The total number of pixels is often used to represent the nominal resolution of an imager.Once lens image circle is determined, the next step is to determine the appropriate lens focal length (EFL) required to achieve the desired field of view. The lens EFL is an intrinsic property of the lens independent of the imager used. The max. lens field of view (FOV) is specified for the image circle size. However, the field of view of CCD/CMOS camera depends on both the lens EFL and the size of the imager area. If the lens distortion is small (known as rectilinear lenses), the following formula can be used to calculated the camera FOV:where f is the effective focal length and θ is the field angle. The resulting distortion is known as “rectilinear” or “f-tan” distortion. Most standard photographic lenses have low rectilinear distortion. For wide-angle and fisheye lenses, the reference image height is typically chosen as the product of focal length and field angle (in radians):Sunex has developed unique designs and manufacturing know-how to provide wide-angle lenses with tailoreddistortion. We also provide Photoshop-compatible plug-in to “de-warp” images taken with tailored distortion lenses.Sunex’s Optical wizards will help you in the selection process:Search imager database: We have built a database of popular CMOS imagers from major suppliers. You can search for an imager based on the manufacturer’s name, PN and imager resolution. Once an imager is identified, you can then go on to search for a list of compatible lenses.Field of view and EFL calculator: This tool will calculate the required lens effective focal length to achieve a desired field of view in degree or vice versa. This tool will work for all lenses including wide-angle and fisheye lenses with a significant amount of distortion.Imaging optics solver: For a given object and image size requirement, this tool calculates the required focal length of the lens based on first-order optics. It then recommends a suitable lens structure and focal length based on the object field size. It is a good starting point for solving finite conjugate problems.If you’ve been searching for a small-camera lens, you’ve likely encountered terms like M12, S-Mount, Board-Mount, Miniature Lens, C-Mount, CS-Mount, and more. With so many names floating around, it’s easy to get confused. So, why does it seem like there are so many options? And how do you know which one is right for your project? In an effort to answer these questions, we thought we’d explore what these terms mean, where they come from, and how they relate to your lens selection.Going back decades, the standard for interchangeable industrial lenses (as opposed to most consumer photographic cameras) was the C-mount. The C-Mount lens, still a staple in industrial machine vision, some security camera circles, and university labs, was one of the first solutions to standardize the lens mount format. It paved the way even before the days of CCD and early CMOS cameras.The thread of a C-Mount is 1-32; more specifically it’s 1” in diameter with 32 TPI (threads per inch), or: M25.4 x 0.794mm. The C-mount has a standardized back focal length (BFL) of 0.69” (17.526mm), meaning that all these lenses were designed with the same flange BFL. In practice, the lens was screwed all the way down to the mount until tight and then a focusing mechanism allowed fine focus depending on the object distance. This of course made for some long TTL lenses, especially those with a long EFL. To help address the length issue, the CS-Mount lens format was introduced. While it uses the same thread and mounting strategy as a C-mount, it has a shorter fixed BFL of 0.4931” (12.526mm).Sunex Knowledge Center: What Is Active Alignment?). Lastly, but admittedly not exclusive to C/CS lenses, there is a tendency to add more features since they are interchangeable. While these features may be ideal in applications where flexibility is needed, it is less desirable for fixed, high-volume circumstances. Often, these features also come at the cost of well, cost, in addition to reliability, design and performance tradeoffs.<img src="https://www.roboind.com/file/upload/company/profile_web_remaining_20261029/910100183-1.jpg" alt="M12 lens | S-mount lens by Sunex"><img src="https://www.roboind.com/file/upload/company/profile_web_remaining_20261029/910100183-2.jpg" alt=""><img src="https://www.roboind.com/file/upload/company/profile_web_remaining_20261029/910100183-3.jpg" alt=""><img src="https://www.roboind.com/file/upload/company/profile_web_remaining_20261029/910100183-4.jpg" alt="">