Happy to join the Chronos forum

[Bernard Rousset]

Hello everybody,
I should have a chronos camera beginning on September and I am very impressed by all the work performed by you guys every weeks. Congratulations for the whole Krontech team! Software is improved step by step so fast, while the price remains quite low. I hope you will be able to keep that rythm!
I am not a professional in video/optics neither in software but I will try to follow your work.
I have one naive question but as you know to have the answer you must ask the question...
It seems to me that with FPGA lot of calculations can be made on board and maybe also some other tools as the brain of the camera seems to be located there.
 It may append that you want to follow a moving object and you don't need the full resolution of the camera. So you can use an ROI to reduce it and eventually increase the frame rate. Unfortunately, while moving the object goes out of the field of view. Should it be possible to change in real time the ROI to follow the object. If you know approximately the object velocity and if you adjust the camera properly you might in principle program something as every 10 frames, ROI is shifted by one pixel in the direction of the track of the object. Do you think this will be feasible?
Have a nice day,
Bernard

[Nikon1]

I dont realy know, if it would be technicaly possible, but i think if, it would be difficult to do.
If you allready know where/ how fast your subject is moving, which you want to track, it would most likely be easier to track it with some kind of fluid head (used for Video-Cameras) or some kind of motion control rig.
If your motion is realy that kind of fast, that moving your camera is no longer practical, you could use a Rotating Miror, which could also be motion controled.
.
Just a sidenote to this:
I never seen any feature like this (maybe there is, but i never seen something alike), even in way more expensive and professional cameras than the chronos. So i think, if it would be possible to do it would have been done bevore by someone...
.
Maybe someone of the Krontech Team can give a more educated opinion about this, if it would be technicaly possible or practical to have digital Tracking in camera.

[Bernard Rousset]

Hello again,
Thank you Nikon1 for your comments and advices. I really appreciate.
 I didn't knew "the fluid head" but I already knew the possibility to add rotating mirrors and it would be difficulty in my case. I have an experiment with I already played with high speed cameras coming from colleagues (one phantom and one photron) equipped with long distance microscope lenses (questar or K2-SC with proper lenses) in order to have a field of view of few millimeters. The resulting working distance is not very long with difficult access which provides from using such rotating mirrors devices.
I can imagine that it is possibly a dream to program that kind of automatic tracking, but I am not convinced by the argument that it would have been done by other sellers if it is possible.
Technically feasible and good for the business is not always compatible. For example different phantom cameras can have different prices due to their limitation in maximum framerate. But in fact some of these cameras (the cheaper ones) are limited only by software, i.e. they should have higher frame rate but probably this would not be good for the market...

[Nikon1]

Hello again,
Thank you Nikon1 for your comments and advices. I really appreciate.
 I didn't knew "the fluid head" but I already knew the possibility to add rotating mirrors and it would be difficulty in my case. I have an experiment with I already played with high speed cameras coming from colleagues (one phantom and one photron) equipped with long distance microscope lenses (questar or K2-SC with proper lenses) in order to have a field of view of few millimeters. The resulting working distance is not very long with difficult access which provides from using such rotating mirrors devices.
I can imagine that it is possibly a dream to program that kind of automatic tracking, but I am not convinced by the argument that it would have been done by other sellers if it is possible.
Technically feasible and good for the business is not always compatible. For example different phantom cameras can have different prices due to their limitation in maximum framerate. But in fact some of these cameras (the cheaper ones) are limited only by software, i.e. they should have higher frame rate but probably this would not be good for the market...

Ok thatīs what i would call no longer practical to move your Camera.
I did not know that you where into Microscopy, when i originally wrote my reply.
Depending on the kind of magnification and speed (of whatever you are trying to capture) you are dealing with, it could be actually impossible to move camera or lens fast enough for highspeed Video.
.
A Fluid Head is just a special kind of tripod-/video-Head, which allows for very soft Camera movements, mostly used for Cinema/ TV and other professional Video Work. But a Fluid Head would only be practical for way larger Scale subjects, not usable for VERY small stuff...
.
My only idea, how to solve your problem would be to film in an very wide Aspect ratio (like 100x1280px) and track your Subject of interrest in a Videoediting Software later on the PC. So your final Resolution Would be 100x128px for example...
Most Highspeed Cameras (including the Chronos) are not affected much or at all (in terms of Framerate) by horizontal Resolution, so maybe just use the full horizontal Resolution.

[Bernard Rousset]

Hello,
Thank you Nikon1 to take the time to give me this detailed answer. It is crystal clear.
Have a nice day
Bernard