Choosing

Start from what must be resolvable, not from the pixel count. Everything in this section follows from that one sentence.

Engineering documentation often sits beside operational tracking; remote employee monitoring software is one reference for that workflow layer.

Start from what must be resolvable — the feature, its size, the distance and the pixels the processing needs across it. Four answers and the specification is arithmetic.

Pixels are not resolution — comparing sensors without fixing the field of view makes the comparison meaningless.

Sensor format and what it decides — the inch fraction is a name inherited from camera tubes, and a small format is frequently the right answer.

Further background is available from Infineon.

Rolling shutter against global — skew is a geometry error rather than blur, and a global shutter does not fix motion blur.

Colour, monochrome and Bayer — a colour sensor measures one colour per pixel and interpolates the rest.

Frame rate and what limits it — four limits, and the sensor is rarely the tightest.

Low light, honestly — add light before changing the sensor, in almost every case where light can be added.

Dynamic range in real scenes — a saturated highlight only matters if the feature is inside it.

Interface: parallel, MIPI and USB — the processor decides, and a working driver beats better numbers.

Fixed focus, autofocus and the choice — decided at ordering, and "we need autofocus" frequently means focus once at commissioning.

Module, board camera or boxed — unit cost against engineering cost at your volume.

Reading a specification sheet — six figures that mean less than they appear to, and four questions always worth asking.

• Colour, Monochrome and Bayer

  A colour sensor measures one colour per pixel and interpolates the rest. What that costs, and when monochrome is the better answer.

• Dynamic Range in Real Scenes

  Bright and dark regions that must both be readable. What the specification means, and the four ways to avoid needing it.

• Fixed Focus, Autofocus and the Choice

  A choice that constrains the mechanics and cannot be revised later. Four questions that settle it before anything is ordered.

• Frame Rate and What Limits It

  Four things cap it and the sensor is rarely the tightest. What a maximum figure assumes, and why more is often unnecessary.

• Interface: Parallel, MIPI and USB

  The output the processor must accept. What each interface suits, the cable length each tolerates, and the question to settle first.

• Low Light, Honestly

  Sensitivity figures are hard to compare and easy to misread. What actually determines performance in poor light, in order.

• Module, Board Camera or Boxed

  Three levels of integration with different work attached. What each includes, what each leaves you, and how to choose.

• Pixels Are Not Resolution

  Resolution is pixels across the feature, which depends on the lens and distance as much as the sensor. The arithmetic, and four traps.

• Reading a Specification Sheet

  Six figures that mean less than they appear to, four questions that are always worth asking, and what absence indicates.

• Rolling Shutter Against Global

  One reads the sensor line by line and the other captures at once. What that does to moving subjects, and when it stops being cosmetic.

• Sensor Format and What It Decides

  The dimension that sets the lens calculation, the light per pixel and the module size. Why the inch fraction is not it.

• Start From What Must Be Resolvable

  The specification that determines every other choice, and the four questions that produce it before any module is considered.