Relationship between industrial camera resolution and pixels:

      The resolution of an industrial camera refers to the level of detail that the camera is able to resolve, usually expressed in terms of the number of pixels that can be resolved horizontally and vertically, for example, the common 1920 x 1080 (indicating 1920 pixels horizontally and 1080 pixels vertically). A pixel is the smallest unit that makes up an image. It can be said that resolution is a quantitative description of the number of pixels recorded by the camera in both horizontal and vertical dimensions.

      The number of pixels determines the size of the resolution. If the number of pixels increases, the camera's resolution increases and is able to capture finer image details. For example, an industrial camera with a higher number of pixels (e.g., 5 megapixels, which may have a resolution of 2,592 x 1,944) is able to present a more detailed and sharper image than an industrial camera with a lower number of pixels (e.g., 2 megapixels, which may have a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200) because it has more pixel dots per unit area to record image information.

Industrial Camera Selection Essentials:

(i) Selection according to the accuracy requirements of the detection target

1. High-precision inspection scenarios: If you need to detect tiny details of the target object, such as tiny circuit patterns on electronic chips, tiny scratches on precision mechanical parts or very small defects, you need to choose high-resolution, high-pixel industrial cameras. For example, for the semiconductor chip inspection with micron-level or even higher precision requirements, it may be necessary to use industrial cameras with a pixel count of 10 million or more and a resolution of thousands × thousands (e.g., 4096 × 3072), so as to ensure that sufficiently clear images are captured to accurately identify a variety of tiny features on the chip.

2. General precision inspection scenarios: For some inspection scenarios that do not require particularly high precision, such as the appearance and shape inspection of large mechanical parts and the surface quality inspection of large-sized plastic products, the pixel and resolution requirements are relatively low. You can choose an industrial camera with a few million pixels and a resolution that meets the basic requirements (e.g., 1600×1200), which can not only meet the inspection requirements, but also reduce costs.

(ii) Consideration of working environment and field of vision

1. Working environment factors: If the industrial camera needs to work in harsh environments, such as high temperature, high humidity, strong electromagnetic interference or dust, oil and other contaminated environments, you need to choose the camera with the appropriate protective properties. At the same time, this environment may have an impact on the camera's imaging quality, to consider the camera's anti-interference ability and stability. In this case, even if the resolution and pixel requirements are high, the camera's environmental adaptability needs to be weighed.

2. Field of view requirements: The field of view determines the range of objects that can be captured by the camera at one time. If you need to photograph a large area and want to guarantee a certain resolution, you need to calculate the right number of pixels based on the field of view and the required resolution. For example, to shoot a large industrial assembly line scene, and at the same time to be able to distinguish the basic characteristics of the products on the assembly line, it is necessary to consider the field of view and pixels, choose the appropriate resolution of the camera, may need a wide field of view, high resolution industrial cameras (such as resolution of 3840 × 2160 camera to meet the needs of a large field of view).

(iii) Combining data transmission and processing capabilities

1. Data transmission speed: High-resolution and high-pixel industrial cameras usually generate a large amount of data. When selecting a camera, make sure that the camera's data transmission interface (e.g., USB, GigE, Camera Link, etc.) can meet the data transmission speed requirements to avoid data transmission bottlenecks. For example, a high pixel industrial camera with USB 2.0 interface may not be able to transmit data in time because of the limited transmission speed, then you need to choose a camera that supports USB 3.0 or higher speed interface.

2. Data processing capability: the data collected by the industrial camera needs to be subsequently processed, such as storage, analysis, identification and so on. To consider the entire system (including computer hardware, software) data processing capacity to cope with the camera to produce high-resolution, high-pixel data. If the data processing capacity is insufficient, even if the camera can capture high-quality images, it can not be effectively utilised, which will affect the efficiency of the entire inspection system. Therefore, when selecting an industrial camera, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the data processing capacity of the entire system to match it.