15 Jun Importance of HD Cameras
As you can see from our camera line-up, HD cameras are an important part of our product line for scientific and industrial imaging. You may ask, “Why HD?” There are multitudes of “regular” digital cameras out there. We believe HD is the perfect solution for viewing real time live or recorded images on an HD display.
Why? Our HD cameras are 60fps cameras. This fast frame rate enables the operator to move samples or change magnifications without smear, lag or jitter. Real-time, fast 60fps video streaming allows effortless focus and specimen placement for more efficient slide reviews. The 16:9 aspect ratio of the cameras are an exact match to the 16:9 aspect ratio to HD display monitors. The 1920 x 1080 HD resolution is an exact pixel to pixel match to HD display.
What happens if the camera’s output (4:3 aspect ratio is the most common) does not match the 16:9 HD display?
The image must be squeezed vertically in order to fit the HD display monitor. This results in wide black vertical stripes on either side of the image. If you stretch the image to fill the entire width of the monitor, then you truncate, or lose the top and bottom parts of the image and lose image information.
Higher resolution images (3MP, 5MP and higher) will cause aliasing due to vertical and horizontal compression to “fit” the image on the HD display. These artifacts essentially distort the high resolution features of these images. The greater the resolution mismatch, the greater the distortion.
Next time we’ll talk about ultra HD and what it means for your imaging needs.