Kowa Lenses

In 1946, the first Kowa lens was produced. Kowa has been building lenses since then for industrial applications in use around the world. Their lenses can address tight spacing, rugged environments, and even near-infrared spectrum. The wide variety of Kowa lenses will satisfy your rigid requirements then provide a number of options to fit the additional flexible requirements.

A Kowa lens family provides enough models of various specifications that allow you to make choices instead of being pigeon-holed into just one model. Just because you need a varifocal lens, it will not minimize the resolution options. Each Kowa lens family has multiple resolutions, focal lengths, format sizes, and field angles.

The first step with Kowa lens is to know your rigid ‘must-have’ capability. From this, you can select one or two families of lenses from this excellent model selection guide.

What Is The Difference Between Varifocal And Fixed?

There are two options for how the focus is set on a Kowa lens. The fixed is the simplest. The distance from the lens to the focal point is just as its name implies, a fixed distance. They are an excellent option if that focal point is easily reached, inconsistent, and well lit from the camera systems mounting location. The only way to get the target into focus is to move the mounting location of the camera system. Their simplicity provides a lower price point.

A varifocal lens is a better option if approximates, variances or unknowns exist in either the camera system mounting location or distance to target point/object. A varifocal lens will allow the installer to make adjustments in situ to optimize for the situational focal length. Varifocal lenses allow for customizing the field of view and image size. They also provide flexibility if the focal length has to be changed in the future.

Overcome Distortion For Image Clarity At The Edges

Optical distortions happen. But lenses can be built to minimize these known challenges to the edges and corners of an image. If the edge or corner of an image is highly relevant to the machine vision application, then selecting a low distortion lens is critical. A Kowa lens can overcome optical aberrations through telecentric construction. This reduces corner blurring and shadowing. The edges of the image will not lose clarity, lighting or contrast with a low distortion Kowa lens. This is critical in pattern matching, measurement, inspection, and character recognition.

Image Size And Focal Length

Do you know your necessary image size? This will determine which family of lenses you will pick from.

The image size is essentially the width and height of the picture you want delivered to the camera. It is determined by the distance from the camera to the target (focal length) and the angle of the field of view. Is the target 3 inches away but requires a 90-degree angle to get the full target in the view from left to right? Or is the target 21 inches away and you only need a field of view (angle) that is 65 degrees?

Other Unique Applications

You can find a Kowa lens for a variety of unique machine vision applications:

• High vibration environments
• Near-infrared (NIR)
• 12 to 20 MP resolution without distortion
• Wide-angle
• NF mounts (Nikon)
• Short wavelength Infrared (SWIR)

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