VidCalc is a calculator to determine the image size on a monitor of an object observed by a video camera.


A video camera is often part of a surveillance system. In the design phase the proper lens must be seclected, so that an object of a certain size will be shown large enough on the monitor. The VidCalc calculator shown below calculates the image size of an object of given height or width for a given distance from the camera.
The image size is calculated as a percentage of the CCD chip dimension. The same percentage normally applies for the relative size of the object on the full screen or in the display window. It enables a judgement whether the object's image is shown large enough.


VidCalc(J) shown below is made available on this web site for educational and scientific purposes and under exclusion of any form of warranty, what so ever. The author reserves the full copyright. Any form of commercial use requires a license by the author. If you accept these conditions, you may use VidCalc(J) now. The calculator below is VidCalc (J), the Javascript version. Please make sure that Javascript is enabled in your browser. Insert your data and make your chip selection in the upper five entry fields, then press 'Compute'.



VIDCALC - the Video Calculator
Object Dimension (0.1 ... 1000) [m]
Object dimension is Height? Width?
Object Distance (1 ... 10000) [m]
Focal Length (0.1 ... 2000) [mm]
Camera Chip Size
Click ENTER to compute   ----> Enter
Camera Chip Dimension [mm]:
Image Dimension [mm]:
Image Dimension [%]:


Ingo Harre, Bremen, Germany, Content last modified on 2009/04/25