Is perception reality?

It’s funny how we all have preconceived ideas about things. Take me for example, I tend to think of the new VW Beetle as a woman’s car. Why? Hard to say, that’s just how I perceive it.

It’s the same with Dalsa. Even though they acquired Coreco a while back and are now something of a powerhouse in high-end vision I still tend to think of them as the go-to people for linescan cameras. Now while I’m sure they’re not turning their back on linescan, they would like us to consider their matrix (or area) camera range.

Prompted by an interview with Dalsa’s Philip Colet, I took a look at some of their new models. The Genie and Pantera have interesting specs and look like quality products, but the one that really caught my eye was the Falcon. This is a 1.4 megapixel high speed CMOS camera that I can see being useful in a whole range of applications (moving targets, high dynamic range requirements.) But I have to wonder if it will take business away from the linescan range. If you can grab high-res images of a target in motion, what’s to stop you using this camera in a less challenging web inspection application?

Here’s another point to consider: If Dalsa think it’s time for CMOS, maybe we need to abandon our CCD snobbery and keep an open mind about a technology that may be the way of the future.