High speed camera: 500 fps at 1.3 megapixel
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The Fastvideo high speed camera (model Fastvideo‑500M) is a 1.3‑megapixel CMOS system with a global electronic shutter, also supplied as a high speed video camera for motion capture. It captures 1280 × 1024 at 500 frames per second and streams over a Camera Link interface to a PCI‑Express x4 frame grabber and then to PC memory. A scalable integrated FPGA (Altera Arria GX) and controller drive acquisition, and multiple cameras can be installed in one computer and synchronised for simultaneous multi‑view capture of a motion event.
Frame rate and resolution
Windowing (ROI) trades resolution for speed while keeping the field of view, so the same sensor covers a wide range of high speed tasks:
| Resolution | Frame rate |
|---|---|
| 1280 × 1024 (full frame) | 500 fps |
| 1280 × 1024 with Y subsampling | 1000 fps |
| 624 × 480 (ROI) | up to 2000 fps |
| 240 × 180 (ROI) | up to 10000 fps |
Key features
- Full snapshot shutter with integration during read‑out; exposure from 2 µs up to 2 ms at 500 fps
- Camera data rate up to 680 MB/s
- Randomly programmable ROI read‑out; read direction reversible in X and Y
- Multiple‑slope mode with extended dynamic range up to 90 dB
- Embedded 32‑bit RISC processor; non‑destructive read‑out option
- With 4 GB RAM the PC stores up to ~2,500 full frames at full speed (more for partial frames)
Image sensor
| Sensor parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 1280 × 1024 (1.3 MPix) |
| Shutter | Global electronic (full-frame snapshot) |
| ADC | On-chip 10-bit, twelve LVDS outputs |
| Master clock | 315 MHz at ~500 fps |
| Pixel size | 14 µm square |
| Power | < 1350 mW, 2.5 V supply |
| Colour | Monochrome or colour |
Software and recording
The bundled imaging program controls exposure, frame rate and ROI and saves image sequences. For real‑time processing and long recordings, pair the camera with our high speed camera software and GPU pipeline — JPEG/MJPEG compression lets you write compressed video to disk in real time.
Applications
Scientific: microscopy, ophthalmology, biology, genetics, biochemistry, pathology, microbiology, neuroscience and pharmacology, plus motion analysis and registration of fast processes. Industrial: machine vision, crash testing, production‑line inspection, component placement and phase contrast.