Manual or auto iris?lens?
Cristian Randieri
Forbes Technology Council | NASA - URSA Advisor | Professor @ eCampus University | Innovation Manager @ Ministry of Economic Development | Intellisystem Technologies CEO | EU External Expert | Kwaai EMEA Director
The iris is the part of the lens that determines how much light falls upon the camera CCD sensor.
The Manual Iris ‘MI’ lens has this fixed at the time of installation. As the light levels change in the scene, the lens can do nothing to prevent either too little or too much light entering the camera. Virtually all cameras employ an Automatic Electronic Shutter ‘AES’ to compensate for these variations when fitted with an MI lens. However they are only able to cope with a relatively small change in light levels.
An MI lens should never be used in an external situation, as the camera will be unable to cope with large changes in light levels. Use an Auto Iris ‘AI’ lens in this case, or where large scene illumination changes take place.
The advent of new sensor technology may result in a change to this situation in the near future.
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