The P-Iris lens works with a P-iris camera’s specialised software to gauge the best iris opening and optimise camera settings to get the best overall image.

The size of iris opening and amount of light allowed in a lens affects the image exposure, sharpness and depth of field. Working in conjunction with the P-Iris lens, the camera uses electronics to manage slight changes in lighting conditions to balance these sometimes conflicting demands and optimise an image. In situations when the iris position and the camera’s electronic processing capabilities cannot adequately correct the exposure, a P-Iris camera will automatically instruct the iris to move to a different position. In bright situations, a camera with P-Iris is programmed to limit the closing of the iris to a position that avoids diffraction or blurring, providing a sharper image.

The SL940 lens, with 5 megapixel resolution, IR correction and its compact 50mm size, provides a combination of features rarely found in other telephoto lenses available on the market today. The lens features a focal range of 9 to 40mm providing 36° to 7° horizontal field of view with 4.5x optical zoom and 16x digital zoom capability allowing the user to drill down into the image capturing subjects in high detail. The P-iris feature adjusts the iris opening to further improve the depth of field, or the distance in front of and beyond the point of focus where objects appear to be sharp simultaneously. This is particularly important in the video surveillance of a long corridor or parking lot, for example.

The lens was developed to offer the security industry another unique product not found today. “With the introduction of the SL940P, Theia continues its tradition of offering high quality lenses with unique features and capabilities to the video surveillance industry. The SL940P lens responds to the industry’s demand for improved performance in difficult and varied lighting conditions,” said Jeff Gohman, President of Theia Technologies.

The CS-mount lens was designed to cover 1/2.5" imagers and smaller including 1/3", 1/2.7" HD size sensors. The lens is also available in manual and DC autoiris versions.