The IEEE1394 Digital Camera List

This page summarizes the uncompressed video cameras available with IEEE1394 interfaces. Uncompressed video cameras are used mostly in scientific, industrial, microscopy, machine vision, computer vision and photography applications that require real-time processing of the video stream.

Firewire / 1394 cameras were popular from the late 1990s to the mid 2010s and thanks to the open IIDC standard enjoyed a wide support on many platforms. Today very few available models remain as the world has moved on to greener USB and Ethernet pastures. Sadly current standards like GeniCam and U3V are not fully open and may rely on expensive specifications or closed-source and manufacturer dependent binary blobs, making an open-source support close to impossible. We'll be sad to see IIDC and 1394 cameras go, but for the moment a few manufacturers still soldier on! Kudos!

Recent news:

• 2024-01-28: I was expecting to be able to archive this page but there is still a couple of companies selling firewire cameras today! To view the complete list with obsolete models go to the search page and select the "Obsolete - Yes" option.
• 2019-12-27: Full manufacturer update. 20 years after starting this list there is unsurprisingly not many manufacturers left in the Firewire/1394 game... But some soldier on! (Yeah PGR!)
• 2017-07-12: Updated ISG cameras

Mini-FAQ: How to choose a camera?

(This is obviously not necessary for professionals but it avoids quite a few emails for me...)

• First check you budget. Camera prices start under USD 100 but can reach more than USD 50000.
• Next, think about the software required to use your camera. Some cameras are compliant with the IIDC specifications wich is a good thing because standard APIs, programs and GUIs exist for them on most platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows and maybe some others). Under Linux, these cameras are the only one openly supported, thanks to libdc1394, the control library, and Coriander, the GUI. It is strongly advised to Linux users to buy a IIDC-compliant camera. Under Windows, most manufacturers provide a proprietary API, which has its pro and cons. Some vendors provide generic APIs, like Unibrain, 1394imaging and IOXperts.
• You will then need to know what kind of resolution and framerate you want. Interface bandwidth is limited so there is a tradeoff between high-resolution and high-speed. Note that the framrate limit is often due to the sensor maximum output rate rather than the bus speed. Example: for a [1280x1024,8bpp,20MHz,B/W] camera the 1394a bus limit is 400e6/1280/1024/8=38fps(*), but it probably never reach that because the sensor is limited to 20MHz output, which leads to 20e6/1280/1024=15fps only.
• Don't forget to check the bit-per-pixel too: maybe you don't need 10 bits accuracy. Typically, cameras are available in 8, 10, 12 or 14 bpp.
• Think also about image quality, mostly related to optics, pixel size (bigger pixel = more sensitivity = better SNR) and sensor type (CMOS more noisy than CCD). Webcams use integrated plastic optics, wich is good for webcams but probably not for demanding applications. C-mount lenses are the standard for machine vision and video surveillance, and most users will need this lens mount. F-mount is for Nikon SLR lenses, a.k.a. Nikkor lenses. I got nice info from John Lord about C-mount lenses. You can find that here. At last, some cameras have passable glass integrated optics, like the (obsolete) Sony DFW-VL500.
• A last thing you might consider: CMOS sensors (and some CCD but it is less efficient) have selectable 'regions of interrest' (ROI). This can increase the framerate dramatically with high-res cameras, or provide software pan/tilt by only sending an rectangular image region selected by the user. This is for instance very nice for high-res, high-speed object tracking.
• For CMOS sensors, check that their type fits your needs: ''rolling shutter'' is very different from ''global shutter''!! (hint: most people will need global shutter). OK, a longer description: global shutter means all pixels are taken at the same time, rolling shutter means that lines are acquired one by one. The latter is usually only used for static scenes, obviously. You can see a nice explanation about this on this page from Point Grey.

(*)It is actually lower than that due to overhead and a 10% reserve for async data.

Found 37 cameras

Notes:

• The frame rate mentioned is the one obtainable at the maximal camera resolution. Smaller resolution and/or binning will usually give much higher framerates.
• Prices are relative to the cheapest version. Color, higher frame-rate, more bpp, cooling,... will increase the price, sometimes dramatically.

Other links:

• Linux 1394 project
• libdc1394: IEEE1394 digital camera control library, for Linux, MacOSX and Windows.
• Coriander: Linux GUI for controlling a digital camera..
• The first version of this list can be found here.