PCO has been playing a leading role in cameras and optoelectronics fields since 1987. The company, which initially started its activities with image intensification cameras, has raised its performance standards by developing the sCMOS sensor technology.
After being acquired by Excelitas in 2021, it continues to operate in a wide range of applications, from scientific researches to automotive testing. The company offers special solutions to its customers with its sophisticated designs, comprehensive software support and wide accessory options.
PCO is a well-known high-performance camera systems brand and complements wide range of technologies from Excelitas. The comprehensive camera portfolio covers the entire spectrum and can easily be controlled with the user-friendly software. The company’s products offer high quality and reliability, so the customers can easily access camera systems that suit their needs.
Product Types
Scientific Cameras
Scientific cameras play a major role in scientific researches and experiments. The scientific camera range by PCO includes sCMOS cameras with or without cooling function. The cameras with cooling function are ideal for low-light applications as they reduce the dark current by lowering the sensor temperature and provide long exposure times. The cameras without cooling function, on the other hand, are lighter, compact and have lower power consumption. Both camera types provide fast image acquisition, low value reading noise and a wide dynamic range.
PCO.Panda sCMOS Cameras without Cooling
The PCO.Panda series is a family of compact scientific sCMOS cameras without cooling function. These cameras feature a passive thermal management housing specially designed to offer a high sCMOS image sensor performance in the most compact form. They also offer features such as low-light mode, light page scanning mode or double shutter technology, which further improves the performance of the cameras and provides versatility.
PCO.Edge sCMOS Cameras with Cooling
PCO.Edge is a family of high-end scientific sCMOS cameras with cooling function, which offers superior imaging capabilities for a wide range of applications. The PCO.Edge cameras are equipped with temperature-stabilized, high-performance sCMOS image sensors that provide an extremely low value reading noise, a wide dynamic range, high frame rates and a high resolution over a wide field of view. These cameras are also available with optional features such as low light mode, light page scanning mode or lens control function, which further improve the camera’s performance in certain applications.
High-Speed Cameras
High-speed cameras are specially designed for demanding applications in vehicle security. They provide excellent light sensitivity and image quality with very high frame rates at a resolution of up to 4 megapixels. Designed with a compact, light and robust design, these high-speed cameras are able to withstand harsh conditions such as crash tests for both in-car and out-of-car use.
PCO.Dimax 3.6ST High Speed Camera
The PCO.Dimax 3.6 ST high-speed camera is a streaming camera platform that offers recording speeds of over 2000 fps at a full resolution of 3.6 megapixels. This camera is equipped with Camera Link HS data interface (CLHS FOL) that enables real-time, uncompressed, robust 10-bit data transmission over 8X10G fiber to protect lossless image details. These features make this camera ideal for several applications, including industrial, high-speed, scientific and aerospace applications.
PCO.Dimax CS1 High Speed Camera
The PCO.Dimax CS1 camera provides excellent light sensitivity and image quality, making it ideal for precise analyses and measurements. This high-speed camera offers high frame rates of up to 3086 fps at a high-resolution of 1296 x 1024 pixels. The PCO.Dimax CS1, equipped with intuitive control software, allows easy playback and export of recorded slow motion video frames. Multiple lens slots (including electronic lens control), HD-SDI video output and automatic image calibration make this camera a versatile and powerful solution for demanding vehicle safety applications.
PCO.Dimax CS3 High Speed Camera
The PCO.Dimax CS3 camera is ideal for precise analyses and measurements, as it offers an excellent image quality thanks to its exceptional light sensitivity. This high-speed camera with high frame rates of up to 1603 fps at a high-resolution of 1920 x 1440 pixels is equipped with intuitive control software that allows easy playback and export of recorded slow motion video frames. Multiple lens slots (including electronic lens control), HD-SDI video output and automatic image calibration make this camera a versatile and powerful solution for demanding vehicle safety applications.
PCO.Dimax CS4 High Speed Camera
The PCO.Dimax CS4 high-speed camera offers excellent light sensitivity and exceptional image quality for precise image analyses and measurements. This high-speed camera with high frame rates of up to 1102 fps at a high-resolution of 2016 x 2016 pixels is equipped with intuitive control software that allows easy playback and export of recorded slow motion video frames. Multiple lens slots (including electronic lens control), HD-SDI video output, as well as automatic image calibration make this camera a versatile and powerful solution for demanding vehicle safety applications.
Intensive Cameras
The PCO.Dicam series offers a wide range of image-intensified cameras from single to multi-channel. The PCO.Dicam cameras, with their extremely short exposure times that drop down to 2.5 ns, offer the ability to handle ultra-fast processes with precision, far beyond the capabilities of other types of cameras. Our PCO.Dicam intensive cameras equipped with the latest scientific CMOS sensor technology, combine high resolution, frame repetition rates, 16-bit dynamic range and exceptional sensitivity for effective single-photon detection.
PCO.Dicam C1 Single-Channel Intensive Camera
The PCO.Dicam C1 series offers a range of advanced, single-channel intensive imaging cameras.
The standard PCO.Dicam C1 model equipped with 25 mm intensifier tube offers the highest resolution with ultra-short exposure times of up to max. 4 ns at a speed of 106 frames/s.
While the standard model offers the absolute lowest exposure time of 2.5 seconds, the PCO.Dicam C1 UHS version with an 18 mm intensifier tube is the ideal choice with its 143 fps frame rate at full resolution.
Also, the PCO.Dicam C1 LT camera is an affordable alternative to the standard C1 and UHS versions with an 18 mm intensifier tube that guarantees high sensitivity with short exposure times of up to 51 ns and 120 fps.
PCO.Dicam C4/C8 Multi-Channel Intensive Cameras
Excelitas offers a series of PCO.Dicam system with multiple channels. These multi-channel systems can be equipped with 4 to 8 intensive cameras in parallel to duplicate the frame rate values, providing an unparalleled speed of up to 8 fully-resolved images in just 32 nanoseconds. As each can be handled separately with the multi-channel concept, it provides great versatility. This feature is available for all three camera types, while the standard PCO.Dicam is ideal for highest resolution, PCO.Dicam UHS is ideal for the shortest exposure times and highest fps rates, and PCO.Dicam LT is ideal as an affordable alternative.
Industrial Cameras
The cost-effective industrial camera series offers high performance and reliability with easy-to-use interfaces for power supply and data transmission. PCO industrial cameras are based on the GenICam protocol and supported by all PCO software packages to ensure easy system integration into your existing industrial application.
The PCO.Pixelfly 1.3 SWIR is the first of our industrial series cameras equipped with InGaAs image sensor, which is sensitive in the visible range of the shortwave infrared, near infrared and electromagnetic spectrum.
PCO.Pixelfly 1.3 SWIR Industrial Camera
The PCO.Pixelfy 1.3 SWIR camera is highly sensitive to shortwave infrared light, which makes it ideal for use in low-light or demanding imaging environments. The camera can capture high-quality images even in situations where both visible light and near-infrared light are required for the application. It offers high sensitivity in the shortwave infrared band over the entire spectrum range of up to 90%. The small pixels allow the use of small magnification optics in microscopy and the use of low dark current for long exposure times.
PCO Pixelfly 1.4 USB Industrial Camera
The PCO.Pixelfly 1.4 USB is a high-performance 14-bit CCD digital camera equipped with state-of-the-art CCD and electronic technology. This camera has high quantum efficiency, high dynamic range and very low value-reading noise. The existing exposure times range from microseconds to one minute.
PCO Pixelfly 1.4 USB DS Industrial Camera
The PCO.Pixelfly 1.4 USB DS is a high-performance 14-bit CCD digital camera equipped with double shutter, a state-of-the-art CCD and a special electronics technology. This camera has high quantum efficiency, high dynamic range and very low value-reading noise. The existing exposure times range from microseconds to one minute.
Flim Cameras
The PCO.Flim camera system comprises of a camera with a frequency synthesizer, which is necessary for the generation of modulation signals in the frequency domain, and a special PCO.Flim laser. The PCO.Flim series features a CMOS image sensor with high frequency modulation that can perform pixel-by-pixel measurements. This sensor is suitable for permanent fluorescence imaging and allows exact measurement of sample permanent luminescence distributions.
PCO.Flim X Kamera
The PCO.Flim X is a version of the first frequency domain (FD) FLIM camera that uses a fast modulated CMOS sensor. It provides faster data reading with two reading lines for each pixel. This camera offers improved cooling by lowering the image sensor temperature down to -5°C with forced air cooling and -20°C with water cooling. All these features reduce the value-reading noise level and increase the usable exposure times from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
With these improvements, the PCO.Flim X stands out as a frequency domain FLIM camera system with a high-resolution of 1008 x 1008 pixels and the highest double image speed of max. 45 double images/second.
