Panomorph Lens vs. Fisheye Lens
The fisheye lens is popular nowadays for the surrounding-view and panoramic-view applications due to the extremely wide view angle (180° horizontal and 180° vertical). A surveillance camera with the fisheye lens can view the whole area at one time to have the full situational awareness. Another special kind of lens, called Panomorph, can also do the job and actually outperforms the fisheye lens, and is getting more and more attention in the market.
The Panomorph lens is a proprietary technology patented by ImmerVision (http://www.immervision.com). It outperforms the fisheye lens because the Panomorph lens projects the ellipse-shape image on the camera image sensor, unlike the fisheye lens which produces the circular-shape image. On the same camera, the Panomorph lens provides the substantially higher optical details and higher camera image sensor utilization.
Please see the following images produced by the same camera using the Panomorph lens and the fisheye lens. The Panomorph lens outperforms the fisheye lens on the optical resolution and image sensor utilization especially on the periphery at the source stage. There are 1 red line and 1 green line on the images. As the pictures show, the ImmerVision Panomorph lens can produce more details for the red line and green line.
| Panomorph Lens Original Image with Line Indication |
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| Fisheye Lens Original Image with Line Indication |
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The integration to the back-end video management system (VMS) is another part which the ImmerVision Panomorph lens possesses a big advantage. The image produced by the fisheye or Panomorph lens is highly distorted, therefore the image de-warping technology is applied to turn the image into the form the human eyes normally see. There are many lens vendors offering the fisheye lens, and different fisheye lenses may have different optical imaging characteristics. Some VMS companies have their own de-warping algorithm and may need to adjust the parameters for different lenses. Others rely on the software developer’s kit (SDK) provided by the camera vendor or lens vendor. Typically the integration takes a long time and is highly business-driven. The Panomorph lens has been supported by quite a few industry-leading VMS companies, which means the user can enjoy the benefits of the ImmerVision Panomorph lens without having to wait for integration.
At the beginning of 2013, Brickcom launched the world's first mini dome IP camera with built-in ImmerVision Enables® 360 Panomorph lens, which can impeccably replace the cameras with the fisheye lens. Now, Brickcom's 360P series cameras consists of the MD-500Ap-360P 5-megapixel outdoor mini dome IP camera, the MD-300Np-360P 3-megapixel superior low lux outdoor mini dome IP camera, and the CB-500Ap-360P 5-megapixel cube IP camera. These cameras set the higher standards for the high-megapixel compact panoramic-view/surrounding-view cameras at highly competitive costs.
