Illumination of the Object Area

The illumination of the remote objects is mostly done through glass fibers. This glass fibers are built in the light transmitting cables - light guides, as well as rigid borescopes, flexible fiberscopes and also in videoscopes.

This type of illumination is commonly called Cold Light Illumination although cold light doesn't exist. The reason is that on the tip of the borescopes, the emitting point of the light which illuminates the object area is relatively cold.

The light is usually generated externally in a light projector with a few exceptions. These light projectors, also calles light sources, are often fitted with halogen-reflecting lamps. They are also equipped with a fan blower to remove the heat generated from the lamp.

For long working distances or very dark hollow cavities (black inner walls) xenon arc lamp sources are mostly preferred. These light sources provide much more brightness as compared to halogen light sources. However, the electronic cost of the xenon-light projectors is considerably higher. Xenon-light projectors are approximately 3/4 times more expensive than halogen-light projectors.

Very few endoscopes still have an electric light bulb inserted at the head for lighting purposes, these are called warm light endoscopes.

Documentation of Endoscopic Images

All our endoscopes whether rigid or flexible, are unconditionally suited for documentation. There are 2 methods of documenting the endoscopic images:

1. Photos with digital camera
2. Video recording with video camera

We utilize the camera technology that is commercial available in the market. However, the digital cameras are becoming smaller and lighter, and this especially complicates our work to find a suitable camera. The most optimum one is the digital reflecting reflex-camera, because the objective lenses come with a filter thread and therefore, our endoscopes can be easily coupled to it with the help of an adaptor. Also the stationary telephoto lenses cuase no image-cutting, which is mostly the case with zoom lens of digital compact cameras. About 20%-30% of the image is lost due to the lens movement of the zoom lens.

We also offer optimum endoscopic video cameras. With the so-called C-Mount-Objectives (including adaptor) the endoscopes are connected directly to the video camera. With this there is no picture-cutting because these C-Mount- Objectives have a wide focal length are are optimally tuned to the cameras and endoscopes.

For documentation all the devices are commercial available as well: Digital picture memory (USB or other memory media), analogous or digital vidoe recorders, and direct transfer of the video signal to laptop/PC along with the functions offered by the software. The so-called "Frame-Grabber" which changes analogous video signal into a digital one is also availabe.