Acti coming out with 4MP cameras

[thewireguys 3]

http://www.acti.com/getfile/Product/literature_file/4MP_Camera_Selection_Guide.pdf

[bpzle 0]

Their going to be showing these off at Asis in a few weeks. Debating if it will be worth the time to go and not be out making money.

[cglaeser 0]

Check out the lux ratings of the 7111 and 7211. They have the same lux ratings, but at different apertures. Do you suppose the lux values are at the sensor, or do you suppose this is just sloppy specifications?

 

Best,

Christopher

[ando 0]

Good morning!

 

Allow me to explain the minimum illumination specifications. The KCM-series cameras come with the ACTi newly built Image Signal Processor that comes with three adaptive profiles for day, low light and night. The night profile has its principles of best night video quality. It also includes the minimum required depth of field.

 

A primitive camera would open the iris to largest at night, to compensate the poor sensitivity of the CMOS sensor, resulting with extremely small depth of field. So many items would be outside focusable range.

 

ACTi KCM-cameras have BSI (backside illumination) image sensor (the same one that is used in iPhone 4) that has 30% increase in captured light compared to traditional CMOS sensors. Therefore there is no need to sacrifice depth of field for the sake of improving exposure. ACTi ISP will lock the P-iris and not allow it to be fully openened. The image at 0.05 lux is good and you get the best possible depth of field under these settings. To sum up, although the lens spec is F1.4, the ISP uses only up to F2.0 of it.

 

For more technical information on KCM (incl. videos), allow me to provide some reference documents from ACTi Knowledge Base:

KCM-5111 Product Introduction

KCM Zoom Cameras

 

Let me know if I can help in any way! Thank you!

 

Ando

[cglaeser 0]

ACTi KCM-cameras have BSI (backside illumination) image sensor (the same one that is used in iPhone 4) that has 30% increase in captured light compared to traditional CMOS sensors. ... To sum up, although the lens spec is F1.4, the ISP uses only up to F2.0 of it.

 

Thanks for the info. Increased light sensitivity is always welcome and a 30% increase is a laudable achievement, but it's only a fraction of a stop gain, whereas f/1.4 to f/2.0 is a full stop loss.

 

Best,

Christopher

[ando 0]

I do not have a night video of KCM-7211 yet, but here's a clip from box camera KCM-5211 18x zoom, shot at night with 1080p resolution mode:

 

(remember to watch it is 1080p mode instead of default 360p).

 

What "BSI sensor + new ISP" does is totally new level compared to any ACTi products of the past. No IR illuminators were used. Please notice that the camera is able to auto-focus properly even under such low lux level, which is a biggest headache for other zoom camera manufacturers. It was a headache for ACTi too. That is why ACTi decided to design their own Image Signal Processor from the scratch.

 

When all the sample models come back from ASIS and Essen trade shows, I will make more video clips if you are interested.

 

Thanks a lot!

 

Ando

[dopalgangr 1]

Ando,

 

Looks excellent to me on the youtube. Just curious, do they plan to implement this technology and features into a 1231 style camera?? That would be the bomb!!

[ando 0]

Yes, eventually this technology will be applied to all product types. However, there will likely be no bullet camera within KCM-series in short term. There will be a next generation models by the end of 2011 that come with 5-16 Megapixel cameras with ACTi specially designed compression module that is able to process up 16 Megapixel without loss in video quality. It is not reasonable to build a 10+ Megapixel camera without having a compression chip that is powerful enough to deliver the expected quality.

 

That generation will cover all camera types.

 

To sum up, I believe if you need to use an outdoor bullet camera, your options will likely be ACM-1231, ACM-1431, TCM-1231, TCM-1431 for about 1 year.

[cglaeser 0]

Suweet. Thanks for posting the video!

 

Best,

Christopher

[rory 0]

Still looks too dark for me, its like a color camera minus the chroma.

Any CCDs coming out with real low light sensitivity?

[thewireguys 3]

Still looks too dark for me, its like a color camera minus the chroma.

Any CCDs coming out with real low light sensitivity?

 

Rory you kill me

[rory 0]

Still looks too dark for me, its like a color camera minus the chroma.

Any CCDs coming out with real low light sensitivity?

 

Rory you kill me

Seriously though I wouldnt pay all that money for that dark night image .. but hey what do I know, all i do are day night apps.

[ando 0]

I will take some close distance shots (5-6 meters or so) next week to show the night video quality so that you can compare it against other cameras that you use every day within that distance. It is quite normal that a camera that shoots from 60 meter distance (as the video) cannot bring as bright image as the one at 5 meters. I thought you would be impressed seeing what can already be done from such an extreme distance as shown in the video.

[rory 0]

That part is sweet but hows that gonna help me catch the barefoot bandit in my back yard?

Yes please id love to see the closer fov cameras .. thats the dollar shots for me

[cglaeser 0]

I thought you would be impressed seeing what can already be done from such an extreme distance as shown in the video.

 

Some of us are impressed. What is the aperture of that lens when fully zoomed.

 

Best,

Christopher

[ando 0]

To be honest, I have no idea what was the aperture level at given moment of time. The ISP exposure control manages three parameters dynamically at any moment of time depending on the change of scene - iris level, shutter speed and gain. The only way to know what the aperture is in any given moment would be to attach a console to the camera to read data directly from ISP. Unfortunately I do not have such tools.

[cglaeser 0]

To be honest, I have no idea what was the aperture level at given moment of time.

 

I was asking a different question. What is the maximum aperture of the lens at the long end? (In the video, it may not have been wide open, but I'm not asking that). A zoom lens has a maximum aperture at the wide end and at the long end and the specs may look like f/1.4-f/3.5. Expensive and larger zoom lenses may have the same aperture through the entire zoom range, while less expensive and smaller zoom lenses do not.

 

Best,

Christopher

[ando 0]

The zoom module spec of KCM-5211 is:

 

zoom range 4.7mm-84.6mm / F1.6-2.8