Hello,
Does anyone know if the 4.3mm IR lens for the phillips spn900nc is available in the UK? I can get the camera itself from multiple sources; ebay, amazon etc. but not the lens.....
I’ve come across the same problem too. I use the Phillips cam as well and couldn’t find any decent UK sources for ages. I’ve had a bit of a look but haven’t had much time to dedicate to multitouch recently but I found the following site which may be what you’re looking for. There don’t appear to be any 4.3mm lenses, but something close should be ok, it will just change the viewing angle a little if my memory serves me correctly.
I haven’t had any time to phone them up for more details, but being labeled as a cctv lens it should come without the IR filter and it appears to an M12x0.5 mounting.
If anyone else has any other sources I too would be interested to know.
Just an update, I’ve emailed the company to find out a little more about the lenses on their site. I will post here when I have a reply. Although being a bank holiday weekend, it may be a while.
Apologies its taken so long, but the company did eventually get back to me.
According to their sales guy, the lenses are free of any form of infrared filter. I’ve put an order in for both a 3.2mm and a 6mm lens. I’ll let you know how it goes.
The 6mm lens was £6.95 and the 3.6mm lens was £4.95. The postage was a rip off and came to £11.19 though.
I’d recommend phoning an order through if you were going to buy anything though. The website broke horribly when I tried to use it, multiple times. I ended up giving up and phoning them instead.
Hey thanks for the swift reply, and the phone tip. How is your project coming along?
What size screen are you using?
Will it be DI or FTIR?
We are experimenting with DI at the moment, it is tricky getting clear blobs, you have to get the diffusion just right....
My screen is currently a 50cm x 50cm FTIR touch panel. But I was getting awfully faint blobs that were barely picked up by touchlib. It occurred to me that I’d not removed any form of IR filter from the camera and while it could still see direct IR light (i.e. shining the LEDs directly into the camera), that it might have trouble with spotting reflected IR light, hence my need for a new lens.
I plan on trying DI sometime soon to compare the two, but I want to get this working first before taking on something else.
Well the lenses arrived and fix the problems I was having. There is indeed no IR blocking on them, although they didn’t fit the camera very well. Small gaps in the thread mean that they are limited in how much they can be screwed in.
I cant say I’d recommend the company though, they still managed to mess up the order and send me the wrong sized lens. Had problems with them all the way through the order. If you find the lenses elsewhere I’d buy there, but if not then this place might be a last choice.
Their mistake meant that I was sent a 2.8mm lens instead of the 6mm one. I’ve tried both and had good results. Neither fits very well, while both being M12 lenses, the gaps on the thread mean that they don’t screw in very well and aren’t very stable.
My setup is still not finished yet, so I haven’t got the camera at a fixed distance, and it would depend on the size of your screen anyway. Better to look at the viewing angle of the lens which can be found on the website on the product information page for each lens.
I contacted Maplin to request information on their mount (i.e. whether it’s M12 or not) but have had no reply—about a month now, so I’m not holding my breath. I’d be looking to use them with the Phillips.
I contacted Maplin to request information on their mount (i.e. whether it’s M12 or not) but have had no reply—about a month now, so I’m not holding my breath. I’d be looking to use them with the Phillips.
Hi James,
I did consider trying those, but due to a combination of Maplin’s awful website and the fact that they don’t make it easy to contact them I looked elsewhere. Considering my experiences with the company I mentioned in my previous posts though, I’d probably try Maplin instead next time I look for lenses.
While I hate to give money to a company that doesn’t even bother to respond to your mail, I’d say they’re the best bet at the moment. The lenses look like they could fit. Unfortunately I’ve found that many companies simply describe the lenses as “board lens” which I believe they use in place of M12, but cant be sure.
If you do try them or if they eventually get back to you, I’d be interested to hear your experiences with those lenses.
Right, the lens arrived. Had a chance to play with it briefly the other night, I can confirm it’s an M12 x 0.5 fit.
Apparently I wasn’t paying attention when I placed the order, as I’ve ended up with a 6mm lens which is pretty obviously too far for the SPN900NC’s thread to cope with. I can get it to focus on the sensor manually (i.e. with my hands) and I can probably rig up some sort of tape/piping solution, but you’d be better served buying one of the shorter lenses. The 3.6mm lens would be a good start.
I’ve ended up with a 6mm lens which is pretty obviously too far for the SPN900NC’s thread to cope with.
Hmm Yes, just thought I’d echo what James said. I’ve made the same mistake of buying a 6.0mm (in the absence of a 4.3mm) M12x0.5 lens off ebay. The thread on the board mount is just a fraction too short to accomodate a 6mm focal length. I’m currently trying get another of 4.3 or below.
Thanks for your info guys, I was considering Maplin for any more lenses I get, its good to know your experiences with them. Now I’ve just got to find a good online source to buy IR bandpass filters in the UK.
