Bertram Achtner

Shortwave infrared camera with extended spectral sensitivity

The shortwave infrared spectral range (SWIR) has certain advantages for the observation during day under fog and haze weather conditions. Due to the longer wavelength compared to the visible spectrum the range performances in the SWIR is here considerably extended. In addition cooled SWIR focal plane arrays reach in the meantime sensitivities to be useable for night viewing under twilight or moon light conditions. The presented SWIR camera system combines the color imaging in the visible spectrum with the imaging in the SWIR spectrum. The 20x zoom optics is fully corrected between 440 nm and 1700 nm. A dichroic beam splitter projects the visible spectrum on a color chip with HDTV resolution and the SWIR spectrum on a 640x512 InGaAs focal plane array. The open architecture of the camera system allows the use of different SWIR sensors and CMOS sensors. A universal designed interface electronic operates the used cameras and provides standard video outputs and compressed video streams on an ethernet interface. The camera system is designed to be integrated in various stabilized platforms. The camera concept is described and the comparison with pure SWIR or combined SWIR / MWIR dual band cameras are discussed from an application and system point of view.

DigiPrimes: a set of lenses for digital cinematography

In our digital age, digital cinematography is gaining importance. Therefore the camera lens division of Carl Zeiss decided to extend its conventional cine lenses with a set of digital prime lenses, the DigiPrimes. These lenses are designed for High Definition Television (HDTV) cameras with three 2/3-inch format CCD-Chips and a beamsplitter HDTV prism. There are six lenses with an effective focal length from 5mm to 40mm. The lenses have a telecentric design on the image side, because of the color separating prism. We will discuss some aspects of the mechanical and optical design and their influence on each other.

Compact multispectral continuous zoom camera for color and SWIR vision with integrated laser range finder

In an electro-optical sensor suite for long range surveillance tasks the optics for the visible (450nm – 700nm) and the SWIR spectral wavelength range (900nm – 1700 nm) are combined with the receiver optics of an integrated laser range finder (LRF) .The incoming signal from the observed scene and the returned laser pulse are collected within the common entrance aperture of the optics. The common front part of the optics is a broadband corrected lens design from 450 – 1700nm wavelength range. The visible spectrum is split up by a dichroic beam splitter and focused on a HDTV CMOS camera. The returned laser pulse is spatially separated from the scene signal by a special prism and focused on the laser receiver diode of the integrated LRF. The achromatic lens design has a zoom factor 14 and F#2.6 in the visible path. In the SWIR path the F-number is adapted to the corresponding chip dimensions . The alignment of the LRF with respect to the SWIR camera line of sight can be controlled by adjustable integrated wedges. The two images in the visible and the SWIR spectral range match in focus and field of view (FOV) over the full zoom range between 2° and 22° HFOV. The SWIR camera has a resolution of 640×512 pixels. The HDTV camera provides a resolution of 1920×1080. The design and the performance parameters of the multispectral sensor suite is discussed.

A modular packaging approach for upgrading tanks with staring thermal imagers

The thermal imager ATTICA was designed to fit into the thermal sights of the new German Infantry tank PUMA. The flexible approach for the optical concept, using different folding mirrors allows meeting the different available space requirements for thermal sights also of other tanks like the main battle tank Leopard 2 and the infantry fighting vehicle Marder. These tanks are going to be upgraded. The flexible concepts of the thermal imager optics as well as the mechanical packing solutions for the different space volumes of the commander and gunner sights of the vehicles are discussed.

New ultra-primes: a set of lenses for ARRIFLEX 35-mm film cameras

A new series of high performance lenses developed by Carl Zeiss for ARRIFLEX 35 mm cine cameras are described. Some aspects of selected lenses are discussed.