The balls will be measured laterally. Think of a hallway. If you rolled a ball down the hallway, the distance measured would be from the sidewall. I’m not sure how else to explain it lol. I apologize. Also they both have TOF but the lidar has a shorter FOV (field of view) so I would think that would be better to accurately pinpoint the target measuring area. 

The balls will all be the same diameter but may be passing at different speeds such as 12mph or 20mph.

Well, that's new data.

Are all these same-sized balls traveling on a single fixed trajectory, or do they move on a kind of larger conveyor belt ? Are you trying to accurately measure their position along their movement axis, or laterally for a larger belt ?

For TFmini vs. VL35 :

I don't own either of them, but looking at their descriptions, they're both based on the same IR technology so I don't see why one would have a shorter TOF than the other ? Processing time is another matter though, see the VL35 docs about the "timing budget for a range".

Also the TFmini announced "measurement accuracy" is +/- 4cm for ranges <6m, 

what I am trying to achieve is to know the exact distance (+- 1”)from the sensor the balls are going by. The balls will all be the same diameter but may be passing at different speeds such as 12mph or 20mph. So you can see that it needs some kind of trigger to measure exactly when the ball is at a certain point. Otherwise it could measure the front or back of the ball and not be accurate. Think of someone throwing a Bocce ball and you are trying to see how accurate they are at throwing it in the same place consistently. If that makes sense or helps with a visual. I didn’t know if lidar would be best. How would I go about using multiple angles? Thanks so much! 

What is it exactly you want to achieve ? Sort parts based on diameter ? Provide accurate timing for further processes ?

I am thinking about multiple simultaneous measurements with sensors positioned at different angles