EBSD is conducted using an SEM equipped with an EBSD detector containing at least a phosphor screen, compact lens and low-light Charge-coupled device (CCD) or Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) camera. , commercially available EBSD systems typically come with one of two different CCD cameras: for fast measurements, the CCD chip has a native resolution of 640×480 pixels; for slower, and more sensitive measurements, the CCD chip resolution can go up to 1600×1200 pixels.
The biggest advantage of the high-resolution detectors is their higher sensitivity, and therefore the information within each diffraction pattern can be analysed in more detail. For texture and orientation measurements, the diffraction patterns are binned to reduce their size and computational times. Modern CCD-based EBSD systems can index patterns at a speed of up to 1800 patterns/second. This enables rapid and rich microstructural maps to be generated.