1.3 MP CCD Added to Point Grey GigE Vision Cameras

Point Grey, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance digital cameras, has announced the addition of new 1.3 megapixel CCD models to the value-packed Blackfly family of GigE Vision cameras – one of the smallest cameras in the world to support Power over Ethernet (PoE).

The Blackfly line now offers a total of 10 different monochrome and colour models designed to address a wide variety of machine vision, scientific, and traffic applications, including 2D and 3D metrology, electronics and semiconductor inspection, microscopy, and automated license plate recognition. The new Blackfly camera models are based on colour and monochrome versions of the Sony ICX445 EXview HAD CCD and are capable of streaming high quality 1288x964 images at 22 FPS over PoE GigE.

The Blackfly measures just 29x29x30 mm in size and offers a smorgasbord of unique features, including temperature, power, and status monitoring; a powerful image processing pipeline for colour interpolation, look up table, and gamma; and a 16 MByte frame buffer for retransmitting images. Like all Point Grey Gigabit Ethernet cameras the Blackfly complies with version 1.2 of the GigE Vision specification. This allows cameras to work seamlessly with third-party software packages such as Cognex VisionPro, Mathworks Image Acquisition Toolbox, Matrox Imaging Library, MVTec HALCON, and NI LabVIEW, as well as with Point Grey's own FlyCapture SDK.

The Sony ICX445 is one of the industry's most popular 1.3 MP image sensors and is widely known for its low read noise, excellent near-IR response, and high quantum efficiency, said Michael Gibbons, director of sales and marketing at Point Grey. By integrating it into the Blackfly they provide a new and compelling option to customers. Analogue camera users will be motivated by the Blackfly's form factor and sensor options to make the move to digital, while cost savings of up to 40% over competing products will give digital users the freedom of choice they are looking for, Gibbons stated.

The BFLY-PGE-13S2 (1/3-inch 1.3 MP CCD 22 FPS) is list priced at USD395/EUR299 and is available to order now from Point Grey, its network of distributors, and the online store (for North American and Australian customers). Additional CMOS and CCD-based Blackfly models are planned to be released throughout 2013.