New camera for high-speed, high-dynamic-range digital imaging at 4,000 frames/second (burst rate) and 14-16 bits/pixel

A novel combination of techniques with a proprietary masked CCD allows economical commercial realization of a fast framing camera which can acquire images at 4,000 frames per second while maintaining the low readout noise of a slow scan scientific grade CCD system. A 16 bit gray scale dynamic range has been achieved in production with this system and even higher dynamic ranges appear possible in the near future with this technique. This imaging system can also be combined with a gated image intensifier to provide shutter times in the nanosecond domain.