You fuckers will argue about anything

For mechs, power armor, robots, etc., what is the best arrangement for optical sensors?

entirely depends on the role/environment it's designed to be used in

so
>depends on the setting

Flying drones outside the mech.

for example
this deep sea fish hunts by looking for silhouettes of prey above it, and the green eyes swivel forward when attacking

defensive optics usually need a 360 panoramic view
offensive optices need to usually be stereostopic to focus and estimate distances

What about predators like mantids that have near-360 degree vision?

They're still prey to anything bigger than an insect.

also do you want to invest in a small number of highly developed eyes, or simple but numerous photoreceptors (like this scallop)

they're just scary and I'm glad they're tiny

spider eyes are simple not compound, so the benefit of having multiples and their placement isn't about improved perception, it's about being able to alert the spider to peripheral movement so they can direct and focus the primary eyes where they need to go to either spot incoming threats or track fast moving prey. If we're looking at quality cameras with a full human optic range and clarity rather than what are basically an array of shadow chasing motion detectors, then the ideal set up would be more akin to an insect's compound + simple set up. There's a whole cluster of small cams making a composite near-360 cam and ideally some kind of apparatus to make that work in the cockpit, with a motion sensor in the blindspot to alert to when the 360 array needs to be nudged over to check said blindspot. It'd be like having your seat and controls inside a zero-g training gyroscope frame with an internal globe screen all around you. You'd either have to have some kind of program to help highlight screens with movement as it happens, or you'd just have to be really good at prioritizing how you handle all that incoming visual information. Like picking one monitor to pay attention to and following targets from screen to screen as they move around you, but also being able to jump to opposite screens to cover your back and sides while being able to relocate your previous target when you need to even as they jump around screens.

1. Sensor Mask
2. Visor
3. Gundam
4. Twin Eye
5. Mono Eye
6. Brave