Bye, Distortion! – A Review of Arducam Global Shutter Camera Family

Bet you met this problem before?

This is called the jello effect when you use a normal rolling shutter camera to capture images or videos of fast-moving objects.

Well, it might just screw up your projects. The jello effect introduces unwanted distortion into images, and images turn unsharp or appear to be warped or tilted, making it difficult to discern details. It’s hard to accurately capture the intended subject. The jello effect can also be particularly problematic for certain types of industrial applications, such as inspection or scientific imaging.

So what is the prevailing solution to address this issue?

Global shutter cameras.

Why Global Shutter

Now let’s explain some basic concepts.

A global shutter camera is a type of digital camera that captures an image by exposing the entire sensor at once, rather than scanning the sensor line-by-line as in a rolling shutter camera. This means that all pixels in the image are exposed simultaneously, resulting in an image that is free of distortion caused by motion during exposure.

Problem solved.

But nothing is perfect.

Back in the 1980s, when this then state-of-the-art global shutter technology for cameras was first developed, it was applied to high-end industrial and scientific cameras that were used for specialized applications such as machine vision, robotics, and scientific imaging.

Hmm, you can smell that it won’t be cheap.

You’re right.

Global shutter cameras tend to be more expensive than rolling shutter cameras for several reasons:

• Sensor-related cost: Sensors for global shutter cameras are more complex to make. And the investment in R&D is also a big sum of money that’ll surely be reflected in the price of the final product.
• Lower Volume Production: Global shutter cameras are typically used in specialized applications such as machine vision, robotics, scientific imaging, or high-quality photography. These markets are smaller than the regular consumer photography market which results in higher unit costs.
• Higher Performance Requirements: Global shutter cameras are often used in applications where image quality and precision are critical. Meeting these high-performance requirements often requires more expensive components and higher-quality manufacturing processes.

Along with the advance in technologies, Global shutter cameras has become more accessible and began to be used in a wider range of applications, including consumer photography and mobile devices.

Nonetheless, the prices are still very high.

So, when Pi users first saw that Arducam released a global shutter camera module at $25.99, they felt excited.

Yeah, they knew it was a trade-off between resolution and price, but it’s quite acceptable. They prioritize other aspects of camera performance over high resolution. In many applications, particularly in industrial automation, machine vision, robotics, and scientific imaging, factors like image quality, frame rate, and sensitivity are more important than high resolution.

Applications

Global shutter cameras are commonly used in applications where distortion is a concern, such as in sports photography or industrial inspection.

Some global shutter cameras are designed for general photography or video applications, and some others are designed for industrial automation, robotics, or scientific imaging, where external triggering is essential for precise image capture.

External Trigger

An external trigger refers to a signal that is sent to the camera from an external device to initiate image capture.

External Trigger

External triggering is often used in applications where precise timing of image capture is critical. For example, in industrial automation, a sensor may trigger the camera to capture an image of a moving object at a specific point in its trajectory. In scientific imaging, external triggers may be used to synchronize multiple cameras to capture images of a rapidly occurring event.

When an external trigger is received, the camera’s exposure is synchronized with the timing of the trigger signal, ensuring that the image is captured at the exact moment the trigger event occurs. This results in images that are free of motion blur and distortion caused by the camera’s rolling shutter.

External triggering is supported by a variety of Arducam global shutter cameras through a dedicated input port or a software interface.

To check more tech info and how to start using Arducam global shutter cameras, visit this if you’re using a Raspberry Pi board, and here for NVIDIA Jetson.

Last, but actually one of Arducam’s key strengths, is the multiple cameras usage. Visit here to get more info about how our global shutter cameras use external triggering to capture the image and help in synchronized streaming by connecting two or multiple cameras.

Arducam Global Shutter Camera Family

Arducam is one of the first companies that offer a way to interface global shutter cameras to the host hardware.

• Since 2016, we started to research and develop our own global shutter application on camera modules.
• In September 2020, we released cameras based on monochrome OV7251 and OV9281.
• In August 2021, we launched the first series of color global shutter cameras.

Now we’ve created a big family of global shutter cameras, from single-sensor cameras, and stereo cameras to quad-camera bundles.

Mono collection

OV7251 Series

Arducam OV7251 0.3MP Global Shutter Camera Module for Raspberry Pi, Monochrome, Stock lens – B0161
Arducam OV7251 0.3MP Global Shutter Camera Module for Raspberry Pi, Monochrome (NoIR) for Raspberry Pi, Stock lens – B0206

OV9281 Series

Arducam OV9281 Global Shutter 1MP Mono NoIR MIPI Camera Module for NVIDIA Jetson Nano/NX and Jetson Orin NX – B0223
Arducam OV9281 1MP Global Shutter NoIR Mono Camera Module with 130deg M12 Mount for Raspberry Pi – B0224
Arducam OV9281 1MP Monochrome Global Shutter Camera Module for Raspberry Pi, Stock lens – B0411
Arducam OV9281 1MP Monochrome Global Shutter Camera Module with wide angle for Raspberry Pi – B0405

OV2311 Series

Arducam OV2311 PiVariety 2MP Global Shutter Mono Camera Modules (NoIR), compatible with Raspberry Pi ISP and GStreamer Plugin – B0381
Arducam 2MP OV2311 Global Shutter M12 Mount NoIR Mono Camera Modules for NVIDIA Jetson Nano/NX and Jetson Orin NX – B0221

Color collection

OG02B10

Arducam 2MP Global Shutter OG02B10 Color Camera Modules Pivariety – B0348

AR0234

Arducam Full HD Color Global Shutter Camera for Raspberry Pi, 2.3MP AR0234 Wide Angle Pivariety Camera Module – B0353
Arducam 2.3MP AR0234 Global Shutter Camera for NVIDIA Jetson Nano/NX and Jetson Orin NX – B0429

Multiple Camera collection

OV9281

Arducam 1MP2 Stereo Camera for Raspberry Pi, Nvidia Jetson Nano/Xavier NX, Dual OV9281 Monochrome Global Shutter Camera Module – B0263

Arducam 1MP2 Stereoscopic Camera Bundle Kit for Raspberry Pi, Two OV9281 Global Shutter Monochrome Camera Modules and Camarray Stereo Camera HAT – B0266
Arducam 1MP*4 Quadrascopic Monochrome Camera Bundle Kit for Raspberry Pi, Four OV9281 Global Shutter Camera Modules, and Camarray Camera HAT – B0267

OV2311

Arducam 2MP*2 Stereo Camera for Raspberry Pi, Nvidia Jetson Nano/Xavier NX, Dual OV2311 Monochrome Global Shutter Camera Module – B0264

OV9782 – Color

Arducam 1MP*4 Quadrascopic Camera Bundle Kit for Raspberry Pi, Four OV9782 Global Shutter Color Camera Modules, and Camarray Camera HAT – B0331