How to Choose an Industrial Camera Lens? A Detailed Guide to Selecting Industrial Camera Lenses

The selection process for industrial camera lenses is a step-by-step process of clarifying the various parameters of the industrial lens. As an imaging device, industrial camera lenses are generally matched with light sources, and the camera forms a complete image acquisition system. Therefore, the selection of industrial camera lenses is limited by the requirements of the entire system and can generally be analyzed and considered from the following six aspects.

Prioritize Custom Requirements

According to the actual application characteristics, there may be special requirements that should be clarified first. For example, whether there is a measurement function, whether a telecentric lens is needed, whether the depth of field is very large, etc. Depth of field is often not valued, but it must be considered in any image system.

Select Target Plane and Size

The choice of lens target size should be based on the camera target size, and the lens target size will be larger than the camera. The target size of the lens cannot make good use of the lens’s line of sight; the image size of the industrial lens should be compatible with the photosensitive surface size of the camera and follow the principle of “large is compatible with small” – the camera’s photosensitive surface must not exceed the image plane scale marked on the lens – otherwise, the image quality at the edge of the field of view cannot be guaranteed.

Choose Lens Type

For general inspection or planar size detection applications, select a non-telecentric lens; for size detection, especially non-planar size detection, a telecentric lens must be chosen.

Depth of Field and Lighting Environment

The combination of depth of field and lighting environment, in areas with sufficient light, a small aperture can be chosen in the direct illumination area of the light source to increase the depth of field and improve shooting clarity. Places with insufficient light sources require a larger aperture or a higher sensitivity chip.

Interface and Aperture

The aperture of the industrial camera lens mainly affects the brightness of the image surface. The final image brightness is determined by many factors: aperture, camera gain, integration time, light source, etc. The interface of the industrial lens refers to the connection interface with the camera, which needs to be matched, and if it cannot be matched directly, a transfer should be considered. Whether it is a C interface or a CS interface, the C interface distance is 17.5mm, and the CS interface distance is 12.5mm. If used incorrectly, they will not focus.

Wavelength and Zoom

The operating wavelength of the industrial camera lens and whether a zoom is needed are relatively simple. In the imaging process, if you need to change and expand the magnification, choose a zoom lens; otherwise, you can choose a fixed focus lens. Regarding the operating wavelength of industrial lenses, the common ones are the visible light band and other bands.

In the process of selecting industrial camera lenses, to facilitate friends to calculate industrial lens parameters, a target plane size table is now provided for reference.

• 1.1 inches - Target plane size: Width 12mm * Height 12mm, Diagonal 17mm
• 1 inch - Target plane size: Width 12.7mm * Height 9.6mm, Diagonal 16mm
• 2/3 inches - Target plane size: Width 8.8mm * Height 6.6mm, Diagonal 11mm
• 1/1.8 inches - Target plane size: Width 7.2mm * Height 5.4mm, Diagonal 9mm
• 1/2 inches - Target plane size: Width 6.4mm * Height 4.8mm, Diagonal 8mm
• 1/3 inches - Target plane size: Width 4.8mm * Height 3.6mm, Diagonal 6mm
• 1/4 inches - Target plane size: Width 3.2mm * Height 2.4mm, Diagonal 4mm

Based on the premise that determining the industrial camera and lens are two separate things, discussing the selection type, to obtain a photo of the object under test, both the industrial camera and lens are essential.