I know that the ideal, depending on the type of camera, is for the camera to be as close as possible to cover the entire working area of the laser module.
What practical inconvenience will I encounter if I mount a camera about 1m (or a little more) away with a zoom lens mounted to only cover the work area?
The answer “could be much more expensive than a traditional camera” is also valid, but I’ll also consider that part.
(1280 x 960 @ 15 fps) that should already be in a museum but I believe that due to the resolution I couldn’t even calibrate the lens. (Actually finding a driver to work on Win11 was already an achievement!
The reason for saying 1m or a little more distance is that, as I have a big head, if I go below that I will hit my head on the camera repeatedly when handling objects on the work table and it is not advisable to damage the camera.
I can’t see the lens angle from the links you refer to. With the specified resolution, 1m height shouldn’t be a problem - if the lens can cover the area. For that price, you can try. However, remember to mount your camera in a way that doesn’t give variations in distance and angle to your machine bed/material height, the distance should be “static”.
I haven’t yet seen the camera’s specifications in detail, but it will have to be one that allows zooming in to capture only the work area.
The height issue lies precisely there; otherwise, a mechanical adaptation would be needed to move the camera out of the way to access and manipulate it in the work area. This doesn’t guarantee that the camera will always rest precisely in the same spot, ruining the calibration.
My “big” concern is whether the actual distance interferes with accuracy even when using the zoom limited to the workspace.
I haven’t seen a zoom function on cameras used with LB, “only” focus is adjustable. You will probably cover a much larger area with the camera shown in the ad, which is cropped during camera alignment in LB. As long as there is enough image information from the 8MP for “the rest”, it shouldn’t be a problem.
If you don’t have the option to mount the camera 100% static/stable, you can give up serious use of this tool.
The deviations will be frustrating. For example, if I forget to focus from 3mm to 5mm when changing materials, I have an error reading of about 2mm which is useless for reproducible work.
If it’s accurate, it seems to me that it will do what I want, or very close to it, although it’s only 2K 4MP 2560x1440 resolution.
My intention is to adjust the zoom manually, not using software. When calibrating the camera, I’ll zoom manually to restrict the image to the workspace and proceed from there. (I hope I’m making myself clear.)
I will always choose the highest resolution that can be purchased in this price range, 4MP is not enough at a distance of one meter - as far as I can tell.
I do not know what a 6-22 mm focal length corresponds to on this camera, i.e. what working area it covers. In the video I can not judge the distance, but it seems to me that the camera is being used as a microscope.
You are welcome. But even though I have experience with different camera systems on laser machines, I do not consider myself an expert. I am following your project with interest and hope it succeeds.
I look at each comment as an opinion. And opinions are sometimes right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes they don’t meet our expectations.
This topic is for exactly that. Debate of opinions between various participants to better clarify a question among the opinions of all participants with more experience/knowledge than me.
Luckily for me, there are only two of us so far.
I’m going to announce beer and peanuts, maybe that will attract more people to the discussion.
If you still get a clear picture, the greater distance is not a disadvantage.
In fact, it can be beneficial to mount it farther away and use a long lens, because of how a longer lens tends to compress the view, and you get less perspective distortion compared to a wide-angle lens mounted closer.
You definitely want to fix the zoom and not touch it after the calibration. Twisting the zoom lens changes the optical path, throwing off the lens calibration. (Similar to an autofocus system. For this reason, we only use cameras with manual focus.)
Note that at longer focal lengths, even tiny camera movements shift the image more so, as Bernd said, it’s crucial to mount it well.
That’s correct., therefore, as I recommended before, I wouldn’t “settle” for 4MP because a relatively large portion of image information is lost during camera alignment, especially when we’re talking about long distances. 8 MP will be fine I think.
The idea I have, theoretically, is also the same, but I’ve never discussed the subject, and since there may be someone here who has already experimented, they might have a more realistic opinion.
In a very simplistic way, the more perpendicular the angle of approach, the better.
Actually, I’m more concerned about any movement of the laser machine than the camera. The camera will be fixed to the wall in a rigid support (I just don’t know which one yet), once fixed and tuned, it is not touched again.
The machine, on the other hand, is simply placed there, it’s not even screwed to the bench. That’s why my concern is more focused on the machine than the camera.
But thank you for pointing it out.
I confess I thought 4k would be more than enough. But the topic is exactly for this, to clear up doubts and clarify questions.
Taking your opinion into consideration, I’ve already ordered an 8K 6-22mm and we’ll see the result.
The worst that can happen is that the lesson costs me €45.
As soon as I take the test, I’ll post the results here.
For now, I’ll wait for the camera to arrive!
Thank you all!
Can’t you make a frame you can place your machine in?, I know I’m repeating myself, but stability of the camera and the machine to each other is crucial.
I’m following with interest how your project progresses, good luck.
