Binning

Binning is the summation or averaging of several pixel values into one.

It can be used to:

• increase the light sensitivity,
• improve the contrast,
• reduce the image resolution with the same field of view, enabling faster frame rates and processing times.

It should not be used if the required accuracies can no longer be achieved when the image resolution is reduced.

When summing up or averaging pixels, a distinction is made between horizontal and vertical binning.

Checking the features of the camera Please refer to the manual for the camera to see whether the camera supports corresponding features. The same applies to the feature names that are actually used. The procedure using the feature names according to the GenICam Standard Features Naming Convention (Version 2.4) is described below.

The features for setting up binning can be found under ImageFormatControl or the corresponding category on your camera:

• BinningSelector indicates whether the binning applies to the entire sensor or an ROI.
• BinningHorizontalMode and BinningVerticalMode indicate whether the pixels should be added up or averaged.

BinningHorizontal and BinningVertical indicate how many pixels should be combined in horizontal and vertical direction. A value of 1 indicates that there is no binning in the corresponding direction.

Binning with a monochrome camera

Four possible configurations for a monochrome camera are shown as examples (the coordinates of the pixels are shown):

Binning with a color camera

Binning support is rarer in color cameras than in monochrome cameras. It can be implemented in different ways. For details please refer to the camera user manual.