High Speed Video with IR Illumination

Hello,

I want to get some help with finding best pulsed IR illuminator to sync to Edgertronic SC1 high speed video camera. I want to do roughly 500 fps with roughly between 3 to 7 degrees of field of view.

SC1 - 701 fps @ 720p (edgertronic.com)

I have found these pulsed IR illuminators:

FLIR CLI-30 30 W VCSEL-Based Compact Laser Illuminator | Teledyne FLIR

FLIR CLI-650 Compact VCSEL Based 650mW Laser Illuminator | Teledyne FLIR

Would either of these lasers be a good fit for my application?

Thank-you,
Charles

IR LEDs are far less expensive than lasers and much safer to work with... and narrow beam IR LEDS can be found... i used to build and sell IR illuminators for night vision devices, and for narrow beam IR i used some LEDs that had a 7 or so degree illumination cone, which while slightly more expensive than other LEDs, were way less expensive than lasers
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/osram-opto-semiconductors-inc/SFH-4550/806365
1100mW is a lot more powerful than the illuminators i used to make...

Uncle Jed, thank you for the great information!

How do the narrow beam IR LEDs like the Osram SFH 4550 compare with laser IR illuminators for quality of illumination? Just wondering if there are any reasons to consider why narrow beam IR laser illuminators would be preferable over narrow beam IR LEDs when using with fast shutter times with high speed video.

charles23 said:

Uncle Jed, thank you for the great information!

How do the narrow beam IR LEDs like the Osram SFH 4550 compare with laser IR illuminators for quality of illumination? Just wondering if there are any reasons to consider why narrow beam IR laser illuminators would be preferable over narrow beam IR LEDs when using with fast shutter times with high speed video.

Click to expand...

The beam of a laser has more photons per unit area but, the area is very small. High speed cameras need lots of illumination power because the shutter is only open for each frame for a very short time. Lenses are often used with laser sources to put the light right where you want it.