Prototype camera sports Micro Four Thirds lens mount

Many camera manufacturers are now seeking ways to differentiate their products from their competition by offering unique features.

In one such effort, engineers at SVS-Vistek (Seefeld, Germany) have developed a prototype version of a camera that incorporates a standardized Micro Four Thirds lens mount.

The Micro Four Thirds standard (MFT) was originally created by Olympus and Panasonic to reduce both the size and thickness of mirror-less interchangeable lens digital cameras and camcorders in the consumer market.

But the engineers at SVS-Vistek believe that by incorporating a subset of the Micro Four Thirds standard into their new range of CCD "Tracer" industrial cameras based on imagers from Truesense Imaging (Rochester, NY), they will be able to offer some unique capabilities to machine builders and systems integrators.

According to Andreas Schaarschmidt, the President of SVS-Vistek, the new cameras will enable engineers to control the zoom, focus and the iris of the camera over the cameras' GiGE Vision interface directly through the Micro Four Thirds lens mount. As such, they should prove attractive for both robotics and surveillance applications.

A prototype version of the camera will be on display at the company's booth at the Vision 2012 show in Stuttgart, and a range of monochrome and color cameras in IP-67 housings will be in production by the end of the first quarter next year.

At that time, the company plans to support the cameras with a software development kit and an application programming interface.

You can learn more about the Micro Four Thirds standard here.

-- Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design