Ever worked in a printed circuit board inspection factory? Probably not. But if you did, you would know that it’s a lot of tough work. Staring at tiny little transistors, through-hole paths, and conducive traces for errors can be terribly boring, even with the aid of cameras that magnify the components for easier viewing pleasure. Now Sony has stepped in with the answer to the question (42), and has brought with them the XCL-5000 model from their CameraLink series, bidding the inspectors’ darkened spirits goodbye for the calming peace of a cloudless sky.

Instead of using several low resolution cameras to create a higher resolution collage, Sony’s XCL-5000 can replace multiple cameras by simply being better. As their press release states:

The XCL-5000 is a black-and-white model that incorporates a new 2/3-inch progressive scan CCD sensor with square pixels. This imaging technology can capture high-quality, high-resolution video at 15 frames per second, and supports up to 12-bit processing with a C-mount lens.

Since it is only one camera, it saves space in the factory and provides quicker results, since there is less overhead required to build the image of the printed circuit board or display to be inspected. The highly complex assortment of cameras and pieces needed to accurately inspect a PCB would be heavily reduced when replaced by the XCL-5000, which also means that cost would be decreased as well (more money is always good).

With a form factor of 44 x 44 x 57.5 mm, and a suggested price of $4,377, this should be on every machine manufacturer’s and inspector’s wish list.