Re: How could the camera on missiles and smart bombs keep its focus?

From: Louis Boyd (boyd_at_apt0.sao.arizona.edu)
Date: 03/18/05 

Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 07:01:43 -0700

> Sea Squid wrote:
>
> I was watching the documenrary Century of Warfare. It has some
> segments of how the video shot when missiles and bombs are closing
> on the target. I guess the missile will fly to the target at 334m/s so
> the
> camera must have a extremely fast zooming and autofocus trick. Can
> anybody here provide me with some information?

The cameras in video "smart bombs" are fixed focus set at infinity and
not zoomed. Any apparent "zooming" is just that the camera gets closer
to the target. No moving parts are needed for the camera. They're not
much different from a common webcam. Exposure is is controlled by the
clocking of the CCD so no iris is required. It doesn't matter if the
camera is in poor focus for the last meter before hitting the target.

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