FCB-EV9520L imaging product

The Sony FCB-EV9520L is a Full HD visible-light zoom block camera with LVDS video output, an integrated camera module for drones, robots and inspection payloads. It is built around a 1/2.8-type STARVIS 2 CMOS image sensor with approximately 2.13 million effective pixels and a 30x optical zoom lens, supplied as a compact block that an integrator can build into a gimbal, a housing or a payload bay.

The sensor and optics define the image quality. The 30x optical zoom gives a horizontal angle of view of about 64 degrees at the wide end, and the camera can zoom and focus at the same time with little defocusing, even under vibration. The STARVIS 2 sensor has a deeper photodiode layer than conventional designs, which gives good near-infrared sensitivity; with the infrared cut filter removed the camera operates at very low illumination, with a minimum of 0.009 lx and 0.00008 lx quoted for the filter-off and filter-on conditions. The maker also specifies a wide dynamic range of 130 dB and an electronic shutter from 1/1 to 1/10000 second, and the frame rate is up to 60 fps.

For stabilization, the camera has an electronic image stabilizer with a Super mode and a Super+ mode; Super+ increases the correction area to reduce blur while holding HD quality, which is relevant when the camera is carried on a vibrating airframe.

On integration, the video output is LVDS in Y/Pb/Pr 4:2:2 format, at 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720, and the module is controlled remotely through the camera's control interface. The housing measures 50 x 60 x 89.7 mm and weighs 239 g, with the same footprint and LVDS pin assignments as the earlier FCB-EV7520 series, which allows replacement in existing designs. Power consumption is 4.4 W typical on a supply of 7 V to 12 V DC, and the operating temperature range is -5 to 60 degrees Celsius.

Typical applications named by the maker are infrastructure inspection, surveillance and security, livestock monitoring and aquaculture, and the camera also supplies visual data for control of aerial drones, underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).