German 1920x1080 Video Camera is Smaller than A Bar of Soap

by John Neely

Published on Feb 6, 2007 7:30 AM
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February 6, 2007 - The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany announced their MicroHDTV video camera last week touting the device as “so tiny that it even fits inside the cramped cockpit of a racing car.”  The camera produces video at resolutions up to  1920 x 1080 with a single 2/3” CMOS sensor, and measures 4cm x 4cm x 8cm, making it one of the smallest HDTV cameras currently available.

The camera supports the most common HD formats, including 720i @ 100 and 120Hz; 720p @ 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, and 60Hz; 1080i @ 50, 59.94, and 60Hz; and 1080p @ 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, and 30Hz.  The camera’s sensitivity allows for an f5.6 setting at 2000lux, and the lens has a nine f-stop range that expands to 12 stops in “high gain mode.”  The MicroHDTV supports numerous manual image adjustments including gamma (on/off, adjustable), color saturation (adjustable), white balance (presets, adjustable), gain  (adjustable), and shutter speed (adjustable).

The inclusion of a robust feature set and a big 2/3” sensor in a such a small form factor make this a camera that should be intriguing to producers looking for intimate, action, or surveillance HD footage. In a statement, Stephan Gick of the Fraunhofer Institut said, “The camera’s electronics have a very low power loss, which means that little heat is generated and the housing can thus be kept very small. By using highly integrated parts, we were able to fit all of the components such as the image sensor, the analog-to-digital converter, the color processor and several interfaces into the tiny space available inside the camera.”

The MicroHDTV unit is designed for professional broadcast applications, and all image control is done via software integrated into the device, and accessed using a PC and web browser.  The device can be controlled over a network via 10/100MBit/s Ethernet, opening up myriad remote operation scenarios for the camera.  The camera’s video outputs allow for transfer via 10/100MBit/s, and via an HDSDI/SDI terminal for studio environments.  

The Fraunhofer Institut will display the MicroHDTV camera at the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany between March 15 and 21.