What is a M12 lens?
M12 Lenses, also referred to as S-Mount Lenses or Micro-Video Lenses, are board lenses used to focus an image onto a camera sensor. M12 lens is a standard and compact lens which has a lens thread of 12 mm diameter. M12 lens is usually attached to a board camera by using the mount lens base like M12 Mount, CS-Mount or C-Mount. M12 lenses can be adjusted for focus by tightening them onto their mount – as there is no fixed distance between the lens and the sensor.
An M12 lens is available in the market with a varied set of focal lengths. M12 Lenses are built with high-quality materials and advanced optical designs, ensuring optimal light transmission and minimal distortionm, our lenses are trusted by professionals and enthusiasts worldwide.
What is the structure of the M12 lenses?
M12 lenses typically have a fixed aperture, and are screwed and are focused by screwing them into the mount and locking them in place – usually with a bead of UV-cured glue. Similar miniature lenses are available in M10, M8, and M6 diameter thread sizes, but M12 lenses are the most commonly used size, since their image circle provides good coverage for a wide variety of image sensors. M12 lenses are available in a variety of focal lengths from fisheye lenses through telephoto lenses, and with special optics optimized for SWIR (short-wave infrared), and ToF (Time-of-Flight) image sensors.
What are the advantages to M12 lenses?
M12 lens has these advantages Low Distortion, High Resolution, Anti-reflective M12 lenses for visible and IR imaging. M12 lenses are versatile miniature optics for computer vision, human viewing camera applications, automotive, forensics, pharmaceutical, and food inspection ect. These S-Mount Lenses are compact imaging lenses designed for use with many small format industrial cameras. M12 Lenses are ideal for environments where space is limited or for OEM implementation. M12 Micro-Video Lenses are low cost alternatives to standard-sized imaging lenses.
How are the lens types for M12 Lenses with 12mm threads?
M12 lenses with SUPERIOR® Optics include Fisheye lens, Wide-angle lens, Low distortion lens, low light sensitive lens, pinhole lens and Telephoto lens types. These lenses range from 0.8mm to 50mm focal length and 10° to 230° field of view. We offer numerous M12 lenses that are ingress-protected and/or IR Corrected.
Low F#, low distortion, and/or ingress protected lenses are ideal for automotive, mobile robotics, and aerial robotics. Miniature fisheye, telephoto, and IR Corrected lenses are suitable for doorbell cameras and active IR illuminated scenes. M12 lenses are available with multiple F# and customizations allow you to quickly optimize any camera design.
Are popular embedded vision applications where M12 lenses used?
M12 lenses are usually used in applications where compact size is a major priority. They were initially deployed in CCTV cameras for surveillance and later became popular by meeting the demands for miniature designs. These miniature lenses can be used with embedded vision cameras from Allied Vision, Basler, D3 Engineering, e-con Systems, FLIR, iDS, The Imaging Source, Leopard Imaging, Lucid Vision, OpenMV, Vision Components, and more. Some of the most popular applications where an M12 lens is used include:
- Autonomous mobile robots
- Agricultural automation
- Autonomous shopping systems
- Point of care devices
- Life science equipment
- Smart traffic management systems
- Automated sports broadcasting systems
