# Types of cameras

You should select the video camera most suitable for your needs:

Color vs. monochrome

Monochrome cameras are cheaper, more compact and usually have greater light sensitivity. If you want to film in near darkness, you must use a monochrome (or specialist IR) camera. If you want to track multiple animals and distinguish them on the basis of color markers, you (of course) need a color camera.

See also

▪Tips for color tracking

▪Camera position and settings

▪Lighting setup

Digital vs. analog

The advantage of analog over digital cameras used to be that they can be placed at considerable distance from the computer and that they were more light sensitive. However, this is no longer true.

Furthermore, current digital cameras can be as light sensitive as analog cameras.

GigE Vision digital cameras

Henceforth called GigE cameras.

Noldus can supply a GigE camera that is sensitive to 0.5 lux, and to near IR light. You can connect up to four GigE cameras to a desktop computer. See Install GigE cameras

Advantages of GigE cameras:

▪You can use much longer cables than, for example, USB cameras. This way you can place the camera further away from the PC. When working with rodents, this solves the problem of ultrasound emissions from computers, which stress animals.

▪You do not need an encoder board to convert the analog signal into digital video.

▪Relative to analog cameras, you can use a higher frame rate and a greater video resolution. However, recording video with a GigE camera requires a lot of computer resources, which may potentially decreases the quality of tracking. Therefore, lower the frame rate at high resolution, and vice versa.

USB 3.0 digital cameras

USB 3.0 cameras can create video of higher resolution and frame rate than analog cameras. However, the cable that connects the camera to the PC may up to 5 m long, unless you use an powered repeater cable. A 20-m powered repeater cable works good with EthoVision XT.

▪EthoVision XT supports the use of one USB 3.0 camera. See USB 3.0 cameras

▪Most USB 2.0 cameras are not accurate enough for video tracking with EthoVision XT. See USB 3.0 cameras

FireWire (IEEE 1394 standard)

EthoVision XT does not support FireWire cameras. The Imaging Source FireWire camera of older DanioVision systems is no longer officially supported.

Internet Protocol (IP) cameras

IP cameras are definitely cheaper than industrial GigE or USB 3.0 cameras, however they are less accurate in the timing of video frames sent out to the EthoVision XT computer. This can cause EthoVision XT to skip a number of video frames during tracking.

If you use IP cameras, for information open the Help of EthoVision XT 17 or earlier, which you can download from my.noldus.com.

Webcams

EthoVision XT could in principle work with most webcams. However, we do not support and do not recommend to use webcams when timing of video frames is important. For example, you can use a webcam to film a mouse in an open field, with the aim of measuring the distance moved. However, do not use webcams to track multiple animals in an apparatus, or in multiple apparatuses, or when you use the Behavior Recognition, or whenever precise timing of events and behavior is needed.

Furthermore, test if the webcam still works when other software needed to run during the trials is open, for example PowerPoint for stimulus presentation.

Other cameras

If you want to use a camera model other than one of the models listed under Cameras supported by EthoVision XT, before starting an experiment make sure that the timing of the camera is accurate enough for a frame-level video analysis. To do so, create a live tracking experiment, and carry out a test trial with the video footage of a digital clock for some ten minutes. Just before stopping the trial, check that the trial duration shown on your screen does not deviate from that obtained with the clock time.

Also check the Noldus support center for more information. See Noldus Support

See also

▪Cameras supported by EthoVision XT