Implementing High-Speed Burst Capture with the Basler pylon SDK (C# / .NET 8)

In machine vision and inspection systems, it’s often not enough to capture a single frame—you frequently need to capture multiple images in rapid succession, also known as burst capture or continuous acquisition.

In this article, we walk through how to implement burst capture using the Basler pylon SDK in C#, including:

A basic capture loop
Controlling frame interval
Saving images with timestamps
Practical performance considerations

✔ What You Will Learn

How to implement a burst capture loop
How to control acquisition interval using frame-rate settings
How to save frames with timestamps for later analysis
How to avoid dropped frames and performance bottlenecks

✔ Environment

Item	Details
Camera	Basler acA2500-14gm
SDK	Basler pylon Camera Software Suite
Lang	C# / .NET 8 (Windows)

🔄 Basic Burst Capture: Capturing N Consecutive Frames

Before implementing burst capture, define a helper method to control trigger mode:

public bool SetTriggerMode(string mode)
    => SetPLCameraParameter(PLCamera.TriggerMode, mode);

1 2	public bool SetTriggerMode(string mode) => SetPLCameraParameter(PLCamera.TriggerMode, mode);

The following method performs a free-run (trigger-off) burst capture, saving each frame with both an index and elapsed time. Including timestamps makes later debugging and performance analysis much easier.

public void BurstCapture(int count, string baseName = “burst”)
{
    SetTriggerMode(PLCamera.TriggerMode.Off); // Free-run mode

    if (Camera == null || !IsConnected)
        throw new InvalidOperationException(“Camera is not connected.”);

    if (Camera.StreamGrabber == null)
        throw new InvalidOperationException(“Camera StreamGrabber is not available.”);

    var sw = new Stopwatch();
    Camera.StreamGrabber.Start();
    sw.Start();

    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
        using IGrabResult? result =
            Camera.StreamGrabber.RetrieveResult(5000, TimeoutHandling.ThrowException);

        var elapsed = sw.ElapsedMilliseconds;

        if (result?.GrabSucceeded ?? false)
        {
            var bmp = ConvertGrabResultToBitmap(result);
            string filename = $”{baseName}_{i:D3}_{elapsed}ms.bmp”;
            SaveBitmap(bmp, filename);
        }
    }

    sw.Stop();
    Camera.StreamGrabber.Stop();
}

public void BurstCapture(int count, string baseName = “burst”)

{

SetTriggerMode(PLCamera.TriggerMode.Off); // Free-run mode

if (Camera == null || !IsConnected)

throw new InvalidOperationException(“Camera is not connected.”);

if (Camera.StreamGrabber == null)

throw new InvalidOperationException(“Camera StreamGrabber is not available.”);

var sw = new Stopwatch();

Camera.StreamGrabber.Start();

sw.Start();

for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)

{

using IGrabResult? result =

Camera.StreamGrabber.RetrieveResult(5000, TimeoutHandling.ThrowException);

var elapsed = sw.ElapsedMilliseconds;

if (result?.GrabSucceeded ?? false)

{

var bmp = ConvertGrabResultToBitmap(result);

string filename = $“{baseName}_{i:D3}_{elapsed}ms.bmp”;

SaveBitmap(bmp, filename);

}

sw.Stop();

Camera.StreamGrabber.Stop();

}

🕒 Controlling the Capture Interval

Burst capture does not automatically enforce timing. To control the interval—for example, 10 fps—enable and set AcquisitionFrameRate:

AcquisitionFrameRateEnable = true  
AcquisitionFrameRate = desired fps

AcquisitionFrameRateEnable = true

AcquisitionFrameRate = desired fps

Reference: How to Control and Verify Frame Rate Using the Basler pylon SDK (C# / .NET 8)

📷 Example: Capturing 10 Frames at 10 fps

[TestMethod()]
public void BurstCaptureTest_10times()
{
    if (!_baslerCameraSample.IsConnected)
        _baslerCameraSample.Connect();

    _baslerCameraSample.EnableFrameRate(true);
    _baslerCameraSample.SetFrameRate(10); // 10 fps (100 ms/frame)

    _baslerCameraSample.BurstCapture(10, “BurstCaptureTest”);

    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        string filename = $”BurstCaptureTest_{i:D3}_*.bmp”;
        var files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(“.”, filename);
        Assert.IsTrue(files.Length > 0, $”File {filename} not found.”);
    }
}

[TestMethod()]

public void BurstCaptureTest_10times()

{

if (!_baslerCameraSample.IsConnected)

_baslerCameraSample.Connect();

_baslerCameraSample.EnableFrameRate(true);

_baslerCameraSample.SetFrameRate(10); // 10 fps (100 ms/frame)

_baslerCameraSample.BurstCapture(10, “BurstCaptureTest”);

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{

string filename = $“BurstCaptureTest_{i:D3}_*.bmp”;

var files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(“.”, filename);

Assert.IsTrue(files.Length > 0, $“File {filename} not found.”);

}

📊 Example Output

Captured images at 10 fps while the object was rotating:

45ms	143ms	243ms	343ms	443ms

543ms	643ms	743ms	843ms	943ms

⚠️ Common Problems & How to Fix Them

Issue	Cause / Solution
Missing frames	Saving images takes too long → save in a background thread using `ConcurrentQueue`
CPU load too high	Full-resolution images are heavy → reduce ROI
First-frame timestamp inconsistent	Trigger mode behavior → use hardware/software trigger for strict timing

🔁 Slow Burst Capture at Full Resolution?

→ Reduce ROI to Increase Frame Rate

Full-resolution capture (e.g., 2592×1944) can bottleneck both bandwidth and processing time. Reducing the Region of Interest (ROI) often dramatically improves:

Frame rate
Latency
Stability

ROI-based optimization will be covered in the next article.

📝 Summary

Burst capture in pylon is implemented with StreamGrabber.Start() + a loop
Frame rate control determines capture timing
Image saving can become a bottleneck—offload saving to another thread if necessary
Combining ROI with burst capture greatly improves performance

筆者: @MilleVision

📦 Full Sample Code Package

A complete working version of all code shown in this article (including burst capture templates) is available here:

👉 https://millevision.booth.pm/items/7316233

Implementing High-Speed Burst Capture with the Basler pylon SDK (C# / .NET 8)

Implementing High-Speed Burst Capture with the Basler pylon SDK (C# / .NET 8)

✔ What You Will Learn

✔ Environment

🔄 Basic Burst Capture: Capturing N Consecutive Frames

🕒 Controlling the Capture Interval

📷 Example: Capturing 10 Frames at 10 fps

📊 Example Output

⚠️ Common Problems & How to Fix Them

🔁 Slow Burst Capture at Full Resolution?

→ Reduce ROI to Increase Frame Rate

📝 Summary

📦 Full Sample Code Package

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