Products > Thermal Imaging
New arrivals - Amber Raytheon Radiance 1 camera and DIOP 75/250mm DFOV lens
Fraser:
A little story by way of an introduction to this thread.......
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by forum member "NukeET" who was asking for some assistance with a Amber Radiance 1 camera and DFOV lens. With regret I was a little 'cool' in my response as I get a lot of requests for help and it can be a little tiring.
I did try to help NukeET however as he is a nice chap who clearly appreciated others help. We discussed the condition of the Radiance 1 and it transpired that the PCMCIA card that holds the firmware is missing. In addition to this the Lithium memory backup battery had been disconnected during investigations prior to contacting me. The PCMCIA card is a Linear Flash Type 1 that is both hard to find and expensive. I offered to program a card with my cameras firmware if NukeET could find a blank one. There was no guarantee that the copy of my firmware would work in his camera and we still had the issue of the lost battery backed calibration memory contents to deal with. This is where life took an interesting turn for me. NukeET decided that he would rather I have the camera and lens than them be stripped for parts, as repair seemed to require a lot of effort with no guarantee of success. We knew the cooler was still good, but that was all we knew about the camera.
NukeET sent me the Radiance 1 camera and DIOP 75/250mm DFOV motorized lens at no cost to me except postage ! This chap is so kind and generous ... a true Gentleman. The camera and lens arrived safely today and I have taken some 'as received' pictures. As can be seen, both units are in excellent condition :-+
My sincerest thanks to NukeET for giving this camera and lens to me. He would like to see how the lens performs and I will document that on this forum when I have established how to drive it.
The Radiance 1 camera may, or may not be recoverable but even if beyond repair, it is excellent insurance in case my working Radiance 1 camera develops a fault. It will also permit me to study the Radiance 1 camera design without risk to a working unit.
We have already met the Amber Radiance 1 camera in this thread........
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/the-story-of-a-radiance-1-camera-and-frasers-quest-to-find-information-on-it/
The DIOP DFOV lens is new to me and my collection however :-+
This is a lens that was designed for use with the Amber Raytheon Radiance 1 and Radiance HS series of cooled thermal imaging cameras. It is a powerful dual field of view thermal camera lens and not a continuous zoom type. The dual field of view is achieved by the use of a set of lenses that may be moved into the optical path when required. This is done by a servo sytem. This type of 'Zoom'/'Telephoto' function was/is common in military and long range surveillance thermal camera systems. This lens is the Dual FOV 75/250mm model but a triple FOV (60/180/500mm f4) version was also made. The lens is f2.3 :-+ I dread to think what they cost when new back in 1996
The lens also contains a filter wheel that can hold several filters for either attenuation or band filters for specialist applications. This particular lens is fitted with two, currently unidentified, filters. The filter wheel is motorized and controlled by the on-board menu driven controller. This controller is also used to set the FOV and may control Focus as well (TBC).
An 8 pole Fischer 104 series socket is used to connect the lens to the host camera. This connector provides the 5V supply to the lens plus simple focus control and feedback signals. Sadly a 8 pole Fischer 104 plug is eye wateringly expensive so I may have to change this connector to a 10 pole Lemo connector that I have plenty of.
For anyone wondering what the equivalent lens would be in a 35mm SLR format.... I think it is about 800mm :)
Time for the pictures then.......
Fraser:
Lens detail continued.....
Fraser:
DIOP DFOV Lens specifications when fitted to a Radiance 1 camera :
Optics : Motorized DFOV 75/250mm
f#: f2.3
FOV: DFOV 5.9/1.8 Degrees
IFOV: DFOV 0.4/0.12 mrad
Band: 3-5um MWIR
Focus: Manual Motorized
Filters: Yes. Motorized rotary Filter wheel
Control: From host camera and via built in LCD Menu and buttons
Fraser:
The DIOP lens is also compatible with my FLIR SC4000 as the Amber Radiance 1 is an ancestor of the SC4000 and they share the same lens requirements, including the same lens mount :-+ My SC4000 combined with the fast DIOP DFOV lens would make a powerful MWIR long range thermal imaging system.
olivir:
Hello, I also own one of these lenses, the original cost of this lens was about $35k when new. I would imagine that there were fewer than 100 made. If I remember correctly, the lens needs + and - 15 volts to operate. 5 volts is generated internally by a dc to dc convertor inside the lens. Once supplied with power the lens can operate independently of the camera. One of the functions of the lens controller is to find and remember the focus points for the two fields of view, this lets the image stay in focus when changing fov. The manufacturer DIOP (Diversified Optical) was acquired years ago by Axyss who has since been acquired by another company(I don't remember who). Axyss made a range of long focal length surveillance cameras. DIOP also made a 500mm F2.3 lens! I had a chance to use this lens with a Radiance camera. The closest you could focus with this lens was about 100 feet.
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