3D Scan Forum

Hello everyone,

I was curious if anyone had experience using color machine vision cameras vs monochrome for 3d scanning?

I know typically monochrome is recommended but what exactly are the downsides to using color cameras?

Alonso wrote: ↑20 Jun 2021, 21:18 I know typically monochrome is recommended but what exactly are the downsides to using color cameras?

The main disadvantage of a color camera is the presence of a Bayer filter, which splits the light flux into RGB components that go to the corresponding sub-pixels of each pixel of the matrix.
There is no such filter in a monochrome camera, so each sub-pixel gets a complete "light picture". Since there are 4 sub-pixels (RGGB) in a pixel, in theory, the sensitivity of a monochrome camera should be higher.

Also, in my opinion, monochrome cameras "perceive" color objects better than a color camera with subsequent conversion in the program "to monochrome".

P.S. I didn’t have "identical" cameras (so that one camera had a color and monochrome version) .. so all my feelings from comparing 5.1MP color cameras like YW500U3 and 6.3MP (Mindvision and Daheng)

Thanks for the explanation OBN!

This link was helpful as well.
https://www.baslerweb.com/en/sales-supp ... ature-set/

It looks like Basler has gone an extra step to improve color camera performance...

So I got a good deal on some used Basler color cameras to see for myself. Here are the results

The results are "OK" but it is evident that FS3D isn't using the PGI processing available with Basler cameras.
I was able to verify this after installing PylonViewer. Even after setting Demosaicing Mode to Basler PGI, FS3D sets it back to simple every time
Due to this, Noise Reduction and Sharpness Enhancement parameters can't be used either.

This single scan also has a bit of a rainbow effect. According to the Basler documentation, PGI should help eliminate this as well.