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6MP_Moonlight

6MP Moonlight Sensor Technology by Virtual Police

The New Benchmark in Lowlight for Objects in Motion

The brand-new MOBOTIX 6MP cameras from Virtual Police have an outstanding increase of light sensitivity of more than 100-times than the former 3MP cameras. The monochrome version reaches even a 300-times higher sensitivity than the previous series. Instead of one full second of exposure time the new 6MP systems can select only 1/100 s which results in capturing even fast moving objects in low light conditions.

Comparison of 3MP, 5MP and 6MP lenses

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Short Exposure Times are Essential

In security monitoring every moment and therefore every single frame of a video recording has to be as sharp as possible. For moving objects this implies the necessity of short instead of long exposure times. Unfortunately a short exposure time of 1/100 s grabs 10-times less light than a 1/10 s. Especially in low light conditions, the lens, the image sensor itself and the image processing for sure have to be very sophisticated­ to generate a sharp and crisp image of the moving object.

Only a Sharp Image is a Proof

In dark scenes long exposure times of up to 1 second create bright images and visible static objects. Perfect to acknowledge objects in darkness. But if objects are moving,­ long exposure times will create blurring or ghost images, and make verification of moving objects nearly impossible.

In security applications­ moving objects are of utmost importance,­ therefore short exposure times are essential to understand what‘s going on. Some manufacturers are using a combination of technologies like adding frames to generate a brighter image (e. g. Lightfinder, HDR, etc.). However, with this adding and overlaying of subsequent frames, small details or objects in the scene could be suppressed­ or distorted, which is inacceptable in security­ applications.

Optimized for Best Performance

This huge increase in light sensitivity was achieved by several means: wider sensor with bigger pixels to catch more light, a hardware noise reduction filter directly at the sensor, a new sophisticated lens with a better light transmission, and an improved image processing software reducing the noise of low light images. This is called the new MOBOTIX Moonlight Technology.