Blackfly - CYLOD

Point Grey Blackfly Technical Reference
8 Blackfly Attributes
8 Blackfly Attributes
8.1 Pixel Formats
Pixel formats are an encoding scheme by which color or monochrome images are produced from raw image data.
Most pixel formats are numbered 8, 12, or 16 to represent the number of bits per pixel.
The Blackfly's ADC, which digitizes the images , is configured to a fixed bit output. If the pixel format selected has
fewer bits per pixel than the ADC output, the least significant bits are dropped. If the pixel format selected has greater
bits per pixel than the ADC output, the least significant bits are padded with zeros.
Pixel Format
Bits per Pixel
Mono 8, Raw 8 8
Mono 12, Raw 12, YUV 411 12
Mono 16, Raw 16, YUV 422 16
RGB 8, YUV 444 24
8.1.1 Raw
Raw is a pixel format where image data is Bayer RAW untouched by any on board processing. Selecting a Raw format
bypasses the FPGA/color core which disables image processing, such as gamma/LUT and color encoding, but allows
for faster frame rates.
8.1.2 Mono
Mono is a pixel format where image data is monochrome. Color cameras using a mono format enable FPGA/color
core image processing such as access to gamma/LUT.
Y8 and Y16 are also monochrome formats with 8 and 16 bits per pixel respectively.
8.1.3 RGB
RGB is a color-encoding scheme that represents the intensities of red, green, and blue channels in each pixel. Each
color channel uses 8 bits of data. With 3 color channels, a single RGB pixel is 24 bits.
8.1.4 YUV
YUV is a color-encoding scheme that assigns both brightness (Y) and color (UV) values to each pixel. Each Y, U, and V
value comprises 8 bits of data. Data transmission can be in 24, 16, or 12 bits per pixel. For 16 and 12 bits per pixel
transmissions, the U and V values are shared between pixels to free bandwidth and possibly increase frame rate.
YUV444 is considered a high resolution format which transmits 24 bits per pixel. Each Y, U, and V value has 8 bits.
Revised 12/13/2012
Copyright ©2012 Point Grey Research Inc.
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