Lick Observatory has recently developed a near infrared camera for astronomical imaging. The new camera has been built around a Rockwell NICMOSII 256 × 256 HgCdTe focal plane array. The dewar and optics were manufactured by Infrared Laboratories in Tucson, Arizona while the electronics and data system were designed and fabricated at Lick Observatory.

The new instrument was designed to image faint galaxies and other astronomical objects as well as embedded infrared sources in star formation regions. The camera has cold focal plane scales of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 arcseconds per pixel when used at the telescope. Standard H, J and K as well as narrow band special purpose filters are contained in two independent motorized filter wheels.

The camera performance with different plate scales and filters as well as the mechanical, optical and electrical lay-out will be shown. M 42 will be used for characterization of the camera's performance.