Linescan camera basics

Linescan camera are a very different animal to area or matrix cameras. For instance, how do you quantify the frame rate of a linescan camera? And what’s with all the dual tap/quad tap output stuff?

The spec sheets will answer these questions poorly, if at all, so you need a source of clear, yet detailed information. I recommend reading “PC-Based Line-Scan Imaging Systems” published on the Adlink web site. This paper, illustrated with lots of helpful figures, explains the details in a clear and simple way, so clear in fact that I could understand it.

In fact there’s only one question I didn’t get answered: should I be writing “line hypen scan,” “line space scan,” or one word – “linescan”?