In the sections below, Part 1 covers several common camera types and their strengths and weaknesses. Following that, Part 2 will cover some less common cameras and other topics like camera systems that use hybrid approaches. Part 3 will cover some supplementary information like camera measurements, latency, and other brief software topics. Here is an outline of what we'll be covering.
🎛️ Prefer to explore rather than read top to bottom? Try the interactive companion, The Camera Landscape — a matrix, trade-off plots, and guided stories built entirely from the sections below.
- Part 0 - Questions to consider when choosing a camera
- Part 1 - The Basics
- The Basic RGB Webcam
- Other RGB Cameras
- Infrared Cameras
- Depth Cameras
- LIDAR
- Part 2 - The Exotic
- Thermal Cameras
- High-end Machine Vision Cameras
- Multi-camera and on-board compute systems
- High-speed or Slow Motion Cameras
- Wireless Cameras
- Motion Capture systems
- Volumetric Capture
- 360 Cameras and Filming
- Other Cameras and Systems (Robotic/Moving, and other "observational tracking devices")
- Older Camera/Video Technologies (Analog, Old RCA Cams)
- Experimental Technologies
- Part 3 - Supplemental Information
- Camera interfaces (USB 2 and 3, HDMI, NDI, IP, GigE, etc)
- Outdoor considerations
- Notes on Lenses
- Notes on Latency
- Notes on image touch-up and noise reduction
- Brief software discussions
- Other References and Acknowledgments