In our high tech world we are used to having things done quickly; however, we don?t want quality to take a back seat to timeliness. Digital technology gives us incredible speed mixed with amazing performance. No where is this more evident than with digital cameras. High speed digital cameras are specifically designed for advanced professional and industrial usage. Let me explain this concept in more detail.

High speed digital cameras are basically designed to capture very fast images. They are prominently used in industrial and scientific applications where a process of their function is moving or changing rapidly. These high speed digital cameras have the ability to operate both in color and monochrome mode.

Monochrome photos are in either total black and white or a combination of both which will give you a grayscale photo. When taking color photos these cameras operate on the RGB method which generates a range of colors. RGB, or red, green, blue senses the red, green and blue components and then conjoins these components to form an extensive spectrum of colors.

High speed digital cameras are defined by a variety of unique features. These features include horizontal resolution, maximum frame rate and shutter speed. When I say horizontal resolution I am talking about the highest amount of individual photo elements that can be distinguished in one scanning line. This is an essential feature for characterizing correct horizontal video resolution for image aspect ratio. Horizontal resolution is also used to specify the resolution in the biggest circle which can fit in a rectangular image. For example, an 800×600 image would be specified as 600 horizontal lines.

The maximum frame rate refers to the maximum number of frames that can be captured in the specific time period. It typically refers to the frames captured per second. The shutter speed refers to the time of light collection or exposure. Shutter speed can be set across a wide range, depending upon the subject and light conditions.

When it comes to high speed cameras you have two basic choices: CCD and CMOS. CCD is short for charge coupled devices and is made up of a light sensitive silicon chip. As light hits the CCD the silicon chip begins converting the light into electrons. The chip then carries these electrons across the chip where they are read at one corner of the array. With the help of an analog-to-digital converter, the amount of electrons at each photo site is measured and then they are converted into the binary form.

CMOS refers to the complimentary metal oxide semiconductor. CMOS technology is also used to convert light into electrons. A CMOS uses a variety of transistors in every pixel to move and amplify the charge using traditional wires. The signals of CMOS don\’t require conversion into digital form as they are already digital. The CMOS image sensors consume low power as they operate at lower voltages than the CCDs.

The most popular choices for digital output include Ethernet, RS232, DeviceNet, CANbus, USB, SCSI, modem and wireless. The usual choices for the number of megapixels can vary from 8 bits to 16 bits. Even the color output can vary from composite, RGB or S-Video.

Some of the prominent physical features for the high speed digital cameras include radiation hardened, underwater rated, outdoor rated, goose neck, board mount, pan or tilt and remote head.