A major advance for thermography has just been announced by Teledyne FLIR. This is the new FlexView Lens, which is basically two lenses in one: one 17mm (FOV 24°) and the other 29mm (FOV 14°). In this way, optical zoom is incorporated for the first time in bolometric sensor cameras.
Electrical substation seen with a 640×480 resolution FLIR thermal imaging camera and using the FlexView lens. On the left the 24° FOV is used and on the right the 14° FOV is used. The resolution is preserved at its maximum.
In portable and stationary thermal imagers there was no optical zoom, but rather digital zoom. To exemplify this, let’s imagine that we take a photo with our cell phone and we want to visualize a goal that is very far away. If we zoom in on the screen where that objective is, we will notice that the image begins to pixelate. That zoom we do on the screen is called digital zoom. Optical zoom is just like the ability to vary the field of view (FOV) while maintaining resolution. Previously, thermal imaging cameras were handled with single FOV lenses and to increase or reduce the optical zoom it was necessary to have a lens with a higher or lower FOV, that is, a lens for each FOV that we needed.
hermographs of a Die Casting mould. The image on the left is taken with a FOV of 45° at full frame (640 x 480) and the one on the right is taken with a FOV of 45° applying a digital zoom of x4 (with a resolution of (160 x 120).
In digital zoom you lose a lot of resolution.
Why is this invention so important? Basically for 2 great benefits:
- Versatility in applications that require movement
- Two lenses in one: no physical intervention required to switch between 14° and 24° FOV
And what would be the main applications of this lens?
- Early fire detection
- Monitoring of electrical substations
- Applications that use PTZ (platform for camera pan and tilt)
- Camera mounting on mobile units (robots, drones and vehicles)
- Test and development thermographic systems
- Condition monitoring via wearable cameras
For now, this lens will be compatible with the Axxx series of fixed cameras (A400, A500, and A700) and the Txxx series of portable cameras (T530, T540, T560, T840, T860, and T865). I leave below a video about the operation of the lens and some additional details about it.
We hope soon to be able to have our own FlexView lens at bcb and to tell you about the experience through an unboxing.
