Instruction manual

Controlling image capture
MARLIN Technical Manua
l
Page 61
9.7 Frame memory and deferred image transport
An image is normally captured and transported in consecutive steps. The image is taken, read out
from the sensor, digitized and sent over the 1394 bus.
As all Marlin cameras are equipped with builtin image memory, this order of events can be paused
or delayed by using the deferred image transport feature.
Marlin cameras are equipped with 8 MB of RAM. The table below shows how many frames can be
stored by each model. The memory is arranged in a FiFo (First in First out) manner. This makes
addressing for individual images unnecessary.
Model Memory Size
MF-033 13 frames
MF-046 13 frames
MF-080 7 frames
MF-131 4 frames
MF-145 3 frames
Table 30: FiFo memory size
Deferred image transport is especially useful for multi camera applications where a multitude of
cameras grab a certain number of images without having to take available bus bandwidth,DMA-
and ISO-channels into account. Image transfer is controlled from the host computer by
addressing individual cameras and reading out the desired number of images. Functionality is
controlled by the following register:
Offset Name Field Bit Description
0xF1000260 DEFERRED_TRANS Presence_Inq [0] Indicates presence of
this feature (read only)
--- [1..4]
SendImage [5] Send NumOfImages now
(auto reset)
HoldImg [6] Enable/Disable deferred
transport mode
FastCapture [7] Enable/disable fast
capture mode
--- [8..15]
FiFoSize [16..23] Size of FiFo in number of
images (read only)
NumOfImages [24..31] W: Number of images to
send
R: Number of images in
buffer
Table 31: Deferred mode configuration register