Most accessible MWIR imaging cameras available on the market today? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Epsilon_
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 07:30:30 am
content: Hi all -I'm looking to gain access to a camera capable of imaging around the ~3μm wavelength (even if only temporarily) for scientific research purposes. From what I've seen, MWIR cameras are even more difficult and more expensive to gain access to compared to your typical 8-14μm LWIR camera.Are there any recommended brands, or somewhat cheap options (even to rent) available on the market right now? All the options I've seen are astronomically expensive cooled cameras.With regards to specifications, the exact wavelengths I'm interested are anything between 2.7μm to 4μm. Pixel pitch doesn't matter, smaller is fine. Resolution shouldn't matter too much either, a small sensor would be totally fine. High FPS would be very desirable.Thanks for the help - let me know if there's any extra info I should provide.

author: zev
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 03:51:10 pm
content: For MWIR there really are not uncooled options, and as you say the cooled ones are wildly expensive.Your band of interest turns on before where most MWIR cameras are filtered for, usually they place a bandpass filter for ~3-5 microns to be viewing in a transmissive band of the atmosphere.The cheapest solution by far would be LN cooled single pixel detector, those show up for cheap quite often on eBay. I have gotten lucky with a couple Stirling cooled cameras on there too, but they are rare and usually have issues.

author: IR_Geek
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 01:51:36 am
content: if resolution doesn't matter then have you considered a pyroelectric sensor? combine with a spectral filter to get you desired wavelengths.cheap imaging MW camera does not exist ... at least nothing compared to uncooled LW.

author: Max Planck
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2023, 10:35:10 pm
content: What temperature range you would like to measure, what NETD would be acceptable and what are your frame rate requirements?Max Planck

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2023, 12:27:21 am
content: Do you need imaging? Lead salt detectors require modest cooling (dry ice, freon expansion or thermo-electric) and have good performance in these bands). Use reflective optics (first surface astronomy types) and you have a pretty good basic system. Add a mechanical chopper and you can do a lot of work, albeit slowly if you need to search for your source.

author: ArsenioDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2023, 02:52:15 pm
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on November 15, 2023, 12:27:21 amOh you mean use the tech behind the AIM-9B? There's also ways of doing pseudoimaging with weird reticles and optical tricks to get aperture computation or something off of a single detector.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2023, 03:58:13 pm
content: Quote from: ArsenioDev on November 15, 2023, 02:52:15 pmReticles make it virtually impossible to recover an image. You can mechanically scan the IFOV, which is synonymous with the TFOV in this application. You can get any frame size and pixel resolution you want. There is a trade off with frame rate and sensitivity. In general this approach is not viable for surveillance and similar applications, but can easily deliver one frame per minute which is more than adequate for a variety of applications.