BNC: Bayonet Neill Concelman, a connector type based on coax cables and plugs widely used for several applications including early ethernet (10base-2), for military and aerospace technology and video/cine production equipment (e.g. BNC is used for SDI, HD-SDI as well as for control connections)
Composite Video (RCA): single line analog video connectors once introduced by the Radio Corporation of America, supports lower resolutions like 480i or 576i
S-Video: Separate Video, a 2 channel standard for low resolution video signals (480i and 576i) - one channel is used for greyscale signals, the other one for coloring signals, usually uses 4pin mini-DIN plugs
Component Video: a 3 channel analog video standard using a set of three RCA plugs/lines and YPBPR color space
DUAL/QUAD vs. 2x/4x [enter con. type here]: Dual or Quad connections are simultaneously operating connectors of the same type to transmit data from the camera to the recorder. That's what Allied Vision calls LAG (Link Aggregation Group). The result is as simple as transmission speeds being doubled/quadrupled over the use of only one lane (i.e. Quad CXP-6 = 25 Gbit/s). This capability is not to be confused with the existence of several connection ports of the same type. Not all cameras featuring more than one e.g. SDI or CXP port are capable to use them in LAG mode.
SDI: Serial Digital Interface, a coax-type video interface in compliance to SMPTE 259M allowing for bitrates of up to 360 Mbit/s (45 MB/s)
HD-SDI: High Definition Serial Digital Interface, a coax-type video interface in compliance to SMPTE 292M allowing for transfer rates of up to 1.48 Gbit/s (185 MB/s)
3G-SDI: next generation SDI standard (SMPTE 424) supporting data rates of up to 2.97 Gbit/s (380 MB/s)
6G-SDI: SMPTE 2081, 6 Gbit/s (770 MB/s)
12G-SDI: SMPTE 2082, 12 Gbit/s (1535 MB/s)
----------------------------------------------------------------
SDI is a rather slow interface. When it comes to high resolution and high frame rates, it might be the major limiting factor. This is how IO Industries puts it for their Victorem 4KSDI-Mini:
HD-SDI:
1080i up to 60fps, 1080p and 2K up to 30fps
3G-SDI:
1080p and 2K 10bit 4:2:2 and RAW up to 60fps,
1080p and 2K 10bit 4:4:4 up to 30fps
6G-SDI/Dual 3G-SDI:
UHD and 4K
10bit 4:2:2 and RAW up to 30fps
12G-SDI/Quad 3G-SDI (same for Dual 6G-SDI):
UHD and 4K
10bit 4:2:2 and RAW up to 60fps
UHD and 4K
10bit 4:4:4 up to 30fps
----------------------------------------------------------------
CL: Camera Link®, an AIA video signal to PC interface supports single and dual port modes, probably Power over Camera Link (PoCL) at 12V (refer to the device's specs!) and uses MDR26 plugs.
CLB: Camera Link® Base (24bit) allows for transmission rates of up to 2.04 Gbit/s (260 MB/s)
CLM: Camera Link® Medium (48bit) allows for transmission rates of up to 4.08 Gbit/s (520 MB/s)
CLF: Camera Link® Full (64bit) supports transmission rates of up to 5.44 Gbit/s (695 MB/s)
CLD: Camera Link Deca (80bit) supports transmission rates of up to 6.8 Gbit/s (870 MB/s). This is not an official specification, but a grown entity. Some refer to it as CL Deca, others as CLF 80bit or CL Extended Full.
CLHS: Camera Link HS supports transmission rates between 300 MB/s and 6 GB/s, depending on the number and length of lanes and types of cables in use.
CXP: CoaXPress, an asymmetric serial interface standard mainly used to connect cameras to computers, uses coax cables and might support Power over CoaXPress (PoCXP) at 24V (refer to the device's specs!).
CXP-1 supports transfer rates of up to 1.25 Gbit/s over cable lengths of up to 212 m.
CXP-2 supports transfer rates of up to 2.5 Gbit/s over cable lengths of up to 185 m.
CXP-3 supports transfer rates of up to 3.125 Gbit/s over cable lengths of up to 169 m.
CXP-5 delivers at up to 5 Gbit/s over cable lengths of up to 102 m.
CXP-6 delivers at up to 6.25 Gbit/s (800 MB/s) over cable lengths of 68m max..
GigE: GigE Vision, a standard for transmitting video and control data over GbE (Gigabit LAN) connections (1000/10000Base-TX via RJ-45). In theory this allows for transfer rates of up to 125 resp. 1250 MB/s, while in reality only 75-98% of the full capacity are achieved. Potentially supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) at up to 48V.
RJ-45: Registered Jack 45, often used for network connections; 100Base-TX (1990's LAN), 1000Base-TX = GigE/GbE, 10000Base-TX = 10GigE
SFP+: Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus, another piece of network port technology with much lower latency compared to Base-TX, supports data transfer rates of up to 16 Gbit/s (2 GB/s)
HDMI: High Definition Multimedia Interface, a proprietary audio/video standard developed by Hitachi Maxell, Sanyo, Koninklijke Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Technicolor and Toshiba
HDMI 1.2 (DVI): allows for transfer rates of up to 3.96 Gbit/s using 19pin type A connectors (commonly used for audio/video devices) and up to 7.92 Gbit/s (1100 MB/s) using 29pin type B connectors (usually found on PC's graphic cards, monitors etc.)
HDMI 1.3 and 1.4: allow for transfer rates of up to 10.2 Gbit/s (1300 MB/s) using 19pin type A or type C connections
HDMI 2.0: supports data rates of up to 18 Gbit/s (2.25 GB/s)
HDMI 2.1: supports data rates of up to 48 Gbit/s (6 GB/s)
PCIe: Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, a high-speed connection standard commonly known from PC graphics cards etc., lately also used for industrial and scientific cameras with throughputs of up to 20 Gbit/s (2.5 GB/s)
RS-170: alias TIA-170 Electrical Performance Standards - Monochrome Television Studio Facilities (170A defines NTSC for color television), uses BNC type coax cables
RS-232: alias TIA-232-F Interface Between Data Terminal Equipment and Data Circuit-Terminating Equipment Employing Serial Binary Data Interchange (control data port)
RS-485: alias for TIA-485-A, a standard for electrical characteristics of drivers and receivers for use in balanced digital multipoint systems (control data port)
Thunderbolt: a standard based on DisplayPort and PCIe technology currently supporting transfer rates of up to 20 Gbit/s (2.5 GB/s)
USB 1.x: Universal Serial Bus, theoretically provides data rates of up to 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MB/s)
USB 2.0 'Hi-Speed': supports theoretical data rates of up to 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s)
USB 3.x 'SuperSpeed': supports theoretical data transfer rates of up to 4.8 Gbit/s (615 MB/s); originally defined as USB 3.0 in 2008, renamed to USB 3.1 Gen 1 in 2013, further renamed to USB 3.2 Gen 1 in 2017
USB 3.2 Gen 2 'SuperSpeed 10Gbps': 9.6 Gbit/s (formerly introduced as USB 3.1 Gen 2, but until recently not relevant for the camera market)
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 'SuperSpeed 20Gbps': 19.2 Gbit/s over dual lane Gen 2 SuperSpeed 10Gbps
© 2007 - 2019 Canon EOS Technoclopedia