Question about cameralink frame grabbers?

[BenHut1]

I've noticed that a lot of industrial and scientific cameras don't use USB 2 or even USB 3. Instead they use something called Cameralink. Does NI make a USB 2 or USB 3 frame grabber for Cameralink cameras? If so, I can't find it. All I see are ones designed to plug in to a PCI or PCIE slot on a computer motherboard. While this works great for desktop PCs, it doesn't work for laptops. Modern laptops don't even have PCMCIA card slots anymore. On modern laptops the only expansion ports are USB. So if I want to use a Cameralink camera with my laptop, what options do I have for capturing its video over USB?

[BruceAmmons]

USB3 and GigE are easy to use with laptops.  I would think you would be able to find a camera that meets your needs with one of these interfaces.

If camera link is the only option, there are external converters from Pleora and others (based on a quick internet search) that would convert the camera link to USB3.  The main problem is speed.  Usually camera link is used for high speed cameras, and USB3 just can't handle that bandwidth.  It looks like there are camera link to GigE converters also, but they may not be GigE Vision compatible.  I would definitely look at the max speed of the converter and make sure it meets the requirements of the application.

Bruce

[BenHut1]

There are a few more exotic cameras that only have camera link. Some of them are EMCCD cameras, and not even all are meant for high speed. Just ultra light sensitive for things like deep space astrophotography, and also some are advertised for use in microscopy as well.

The latest version of USB 3 called USB 3.2 has hugely high data rates, well over 1gigabit per second. Some of these have USB-A connectors, and some have USB-C connectors. And then there's also a Thunderbolt-3 port , and it looks just like a normal USB-C port, and is backwards compatible with the USB 3.2 protocol, but it also can use the much faster Thunderbolt protocol. I would think that for most cameras using Cameralink, the USB 3.2 protocol would be fast enough so that you could have a USB 3.2 based frame grabber for for Cameralink cameras. But even if USB 3.2 isn't fast enough for some Cameralink cameras, then surely the Thunderbolt protocol would be fast enough, such that a company could make a Cameralink frame grabber that communiates with the host computer via Thunderbolt.

[santo_13]

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@BenHut1 wrote:

There are a few more exotic cameras that only have camera link. Some of them are EMCCD cameras, and not even all are meant for high speed. Just ultra light sensitive for things like deep space astrophotography, and also some are advertised for use in microscopy as well.

The latest version of USB 3 called USB 3.2 has hugely high data rates, well over 1gigabit per second. Some of these have USB-A connectors, and some have USB-C connectors. And then there's also a Thunderbolt-3 port , and it looks just like a normal USB-C port, and is backwards compatible with the USB 3.2 protocol, but it also can use the much faster Thunderbolt protocol. I would think that for most cameras using Cameralink, the USB 3.2 protocol would be fast enough so that you could have a USB 3.2 based frame grabber for for Cameralink cameras. But even if USB 3.2 isn't fast enough for some Cameralink cameras, then surely the Thunderbolt protocol would be fast enough, such that a company could make a Cameralink frame grabber that communiates with the host computer via Thunderbolt.

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Looks like there is already one - https://www.epixinc.com/products/pixci_mf2280c.htm