Pick the scene first. Then pick the wells. Brand and megapixels come last. This is the order that keeps you out of a 12 MP rolling-shutter night camera with a format no M12 can cover.
In one sentence. Name the contrast, the motion, the colour, the light, and the pipe. Then open the sensor library and filter in that order.
1. Write the scene down
- Is there a door to daylight? Then HDR is a requirement, not a badge. See the garage-exit note.
- Does the object move, or do the lights blink? Then start on global shutter.
- Do you need hue, or a code, or a measurement? That is CFA.
- Is it night or a dark cabinet? Then pixel size and QE beat megapixels.
2. Lock the format
Optical format decides the lens family. If you must stay on M12, stay on a format an M12 can cover. Do not fall in love with a 1" die and a board-camera housing.
3. Pixel size, then resolution
Read pixel size versus megapixels. Crop needs wells. Night needs well size. You rarely get both for free on a small format.
4. The pipe
Interface, bit depth, FPS, then RAW versus YUV. A host that cannot ingest the frame makes the rest of the datasheet decorative.
5. The rest of the die
Technology, sensor CRA, package. These decide whether the module you build will still look like the spreadsheet.
A worked order on Camemaker
- Open the image-sensor library.
- Set shutter, format, CFA, HDR if the scene needs them.
- Set a pixel-size floor if the light is poor.
- Only then move resolution and FPS.
- Read the surviving datasheets. Do not invent a QE or a stop-count the page does not print.
If you are still comparing twenty parts after that, you have not written the scene down. The library is large on purpose. Your application is not.
The companion post is how to pick the lens once this chip is real. Start here. The glass has nothing to cover until the rectangle exists.