ESP32-CAM MicroSD Card - Saving images with the ESP32-Cam

Learn to use the MicroSD card on the ESP32-CAM to store photos. We’ll also build a motion-sensitive and time-lapse camera.
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The ESP32-CAM is an amazing little module, especially when you consider how inexpensive it is. With all the power of the 32-bit ESP32 combined with a 2MP camera, this board has a lot of practical applications.
It also has a MicroSD card slot, and today we will learn how to use this to store images on a MicroSD card.
We’ll examine how the ESP32 works with both the camera and the MicroSD card, and then we’ll build a simple camera. After that, we’ll turn our camera into a motion-sensitive camera, and then we’ll write some code to build a time-lapse camera.
Here is the Table of Contents for today's video:
00:00 - Introduction
01:26 - ESP32-CAM MicroSD Card
07:22 - Using the Camera and MicroSD Card
12:09 - Simple Camera
22:16 - Motion-Sensitive Camera
27:29 - Time-Lapse Camera
33:07 - Conclusion
I hope you enjoy the video!
Bill

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!! It's happening on a lot of my videos, I'm taking steps to remove them manually, but as I have 162 videos, it will take some time. If you do run across a suspicious comment, I would appreciate you letting me know at [e-mail]. Thanks! Bill (The real one!)

[@abdul2105]

Hi please i need help i am constantly getting the error no serial data received is my esp32-cam broken or what is it?

[@DenisLEFUR]

After loosing time with partial or wrong informations, I found your site. Thanks a lot for your pedagogy !

[@Lorenzo0077]

the quality of your videos and the explanations are far above everything i have seen.

[@lundebc]

You have so many great videos! Just wanted to say thanks for publishing constantly, and for such great content!

[@afyu]

Thank you for this informative video. Your clear and concise explanations of the code and the demonstration of the process were very helpful. I appreciated how you walked through the steps of setting up the hardware and software components needed to save images to the MicroSD card. Your troubleshooting tips were also very useful for those who may run into issues while working with the ESP32-CAM and the MicroSD card. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise on this topic!

[@pileofstuff]

Thanks for this, Bill. I've got a couple of ESP32 cam boards that I have been procrastinating tinkering with. It's good to have these tutorials available.

[@FlyingCakes01]

Your videos make it so simple and fun to follow!

[@JosSSMr]

hi ; just start my project with esp32 cam!!! with this video nothing can be wrong thx a lot for shared knowledge , regards

[@praveenkumar-vx3kw]

for streaming , built-in webserver example is good. I have put the streaming for 4 days it is working fine. Also I suggest to do live streaming instead of storing it on SD while youtube gives a free storage for 12 hrs stream which save GBs. but you need to connect your ESP32-CAM with VLC player for this.

[@tonykempson4331]

Excellent! Thank you! I appreciate the detailed way that you explained the code.

[@PhuNguyen-we2hd]

Thanks for the tutorial.

[@MrOlegBoldyrev]

Thanks a lot Bill! Did you ever think of streaming snapshots or even videos wirelessly to store them remotely?

[@coder-c6961]

Great video I needed this and it helped thanks!

[@acestudioscouk-Ace-G0ACE]

Thanks for another informative video, as a photographer by trade and a dilettante in electronics and radio, I shall have to try this one.

[@celestesneed3331]

I love your channel! Totally addicted

[@HaCkIsS2]

Very good piece of video. Thank you very much for your great job, very well documented!

[@wendygrant2735]

This was a very useful video for me.

[@markusps3248]

Amazing video once again 👍

[@JLCPCB]

Great work! 😁

[@usefulelectronics]

Nice tutorial!!. I wonder if it is possible to use a better camera module one with better quality

[@tubeDude48]

On the Time-Lapse, a count-down counter would be nice to have so you know when it will take the next shot.

[@YCYip-ci9er]

Thanks for all the great videos and teachings. Would you consider in the coming opportunity to show us how to setup and use the Lilygo T Display with ESP32S3 ?

[@faridnubaili7917]

Good explanation, clean code

[@thamghoul5719]

I love your shop

[@andymouse]

Great stuff !...cheers

[@ciprianpopa1503]

Interesting find. I can see that there are a lot of sellers offering this product on-line. What one can immediatly realize is that this one works with the OV2640 Camera. Since I am very sure many of us have a lot of cameras in their old phones that are orders of magnitudes better than the OV2640 Camera, I am curious to know whether there are dedicated boards for running better cameras, from Samsung for instance.

[@tubeDude48]

SDFormat works well also. SmartDisk32 search turned up, Partition Assistant Std.

[@inductr]

You are a lifesaver!

[@Bianchi77]

Creative video, like it, thanks for sharing :)

[@piconano]

I bought one a couple of years ago but never used it. Question: Would I be able to see the faint stars at night without a zoom lens? Most cameras are not sensitive enough to pick up stars in the night sky. I want to monitor the light sources in the sky at night, to see which ones are moving and then take a 5 sec video. I was going to use a Rpi Noir and a Rpi 3B+ I have, but if I can get away with using a smaller power pig, I'd rather use that instead. Thanks for another excellent video.

[@christopherdrumgoole8247]

Great tutorial! I've been struggling with a motion sensor camera project using an esp32cam with the module board. Several other tutorials have been too complex, and I haven''t been successful. I'm working through your example, and using the simple camera code - I can only take pictures in QVGA. The larger pictures come out super dark, or solid black. The webserver example sketch works fine, and I've verified all the pins are the same for your example. Do you know what setting controls the exposure length?

[@yuvrajkukreja1248]

Awesome 👍👍

[@vijaysulakhe5605]

Thanks.. Excellent content... I will be happy if the volume is little more. I am unable to hear while in transit.

[@philippeahonon5747]

Hi Sir, thank you for your tutorials, it was great. Please, I would like to know if by inserting a memory card, the images recorded by the Esp32-cam module can be used for easy detection, or if facial recognition is limited depending on the space available to the esp32-cam , or if it is possible to store the maximum depending on the external memory add? Thank you, please answer me, it's urgent for me.

[@weerobot]

Awesome Work....Your Videos..

[@MaxGoddur]

Thank you for a great video. Just did a quick search on your videos and did not find the answer to the question I would like to ask you. I am looking for a detailed video or write-up on erasing the ESP32/8266. Found a couple of examples but there were steps not covered preventing any attempts to erase the contents of the flash.

[@arthus1971]

Bravisimo!!!

[@user-dt6zq7oi9z]

You are Best Of the Best

[@zyghom]

it took me some time to realize how come, some boards require to press the boot and reset buttons to program the ESP and some other boards don't need that and Arduino puts the ESP32 into the boot mode automatically. The solution is simple: DTR and RST pins from FTDI connected to GPIO-0 and ENABLE pins accordingly - then magic happens ;-)

[@markweir3653]

HiAll, Just a wee share I tried to compile this code with the ESP board library version 1.0.6 and it fails. I had to take the library back to 1.0.4 to compile properly. Excellent videos and articles, I have learned a lot on this channel. Thanks so much

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Nice device. I wonder if can be used for recycling a film camera in a digital camera

[@cjlowe1650]

Thanks for the videos. Are there any for the Raspberry pi (zero 2w)?

[@collinbetten5631]

I highly recommend getting the 2 dollar programmer board for the esp32cam. Programming it with FTDI can be a pain in the @$$

[@cuznerdexter]

Agreed, so far 2 FTDI cards and 1 ESP32-CAM have burnt out during general dev usage - connected to a macbook usb port. 🤕

[@naveeshgupta]

Is it possible to use higher or different lens with IR Filter on ESP32 CAM Module for Night Vision with better picture quality. If yes then please make demo video for that, if not then please let me know.

[@bunnykiller]

Did they ever fix the issue with the small board that has the polarity mismatch? Its the board that comes as a set when you spend the extra money, there was/is an issue with a diode blowing out on it and it ruins both boards ( all of my stuff is packed away from the hurricane, I would have provided board numbers eslewise..)

[@inlywang8157]

always amazing

[@-MrDontCare-]

Cool, I am actually waiting for the complete set of this. Cost me only $9.01 with shipping and tax on aliexpress.

[@joegroom3195]

Nice video, very informative! Question though... One thing I've noticed with some cameras, is that they take time to stabilize the image when they first power on. If pictures are taken too soon after it powers on, they come out with odd coloring. For instance, some of the pictures in the time-lapse are purple. Is that the case with this camera? Do the pictures come out better if you pause for a few seconds after coming out of sleep to let it stabilize before taking a picture?

[@digihz_data]

I would like to know this to. Anyone knows?

[@sat-bhakti-sandesh]

Hi sir your videos are very helpful Please tell how to use raspberry pi pico inbuilt flash insted of eeprom to store 2 or 3 digit numbers

[@avirupchakraborty8395]

Can I add a 4 pin oled to display some information with this project, if yes, which pins should I connect to??

[@olafschermann1592]

(How) did you glue the backside of the camera to the SD card slot, to make it a small heat sink?

[@digihz_data]

Nice tutorial, but.... Bill.. You use an unsigned int as a counter (65535), but only 1 byte(255) for the eeprom. So the max count can never be more than 255 (after 255 it will go back to 0 *overflow*). Just wanted to inform you. :) PS:Don't forget about the initialization time for a pir sensor to(between 1 and 2 minutes)!

[@dh2032]

thanks so is the a solution to go past 255+, or is it just quirk of of think, e.g. if you want more buy the more expensive model?

[@digihz_data]

@@dh2032 If you reserve 2 bytes for the eeprom, then you can store a value up to 65535 if your counter is an uint16_t. If you reserve 4 bytes for the eeprom, then you can have an unsigned long counter that counts up to a lot more. Hope this explains it.

[@TomWien]

@@digihz_data Hello Mr. Sandberg and sorry for the "stupid" question: (I am an absolut newbie and try to dive into these topic since someone is constantly attacking/damaging my little motorcycle so I need to get as many pics as possible to find out who it is) DO I get you right to change LINE26 to: EEPROM_SIZE 2? or schould I take 4? :-))) anything else you suggest to chatch this bas****? ;-)

[@digihz_data]

@Blonder well....if eeprom size is set to 1 then you only have 1 byte to use in the eeprom. Esp32 can have up to 4096 bytes max. So it is up to you to set the desired size that you will be using.

[@digihz_data]

@Blonder 1 byte can only contain a value between 0 and 255. 2 bytes(like an int or unsigned int can hold bigger values. The more bytes you set in eeprom size,the more data you can store in the eeprom. If you are a newbie,I recommend you Google for "arduino eeprom", "arduino variables" and simular.

[@germanskena6537]

Hello DroneBot Workshop . Thank you for all your videos, there are very instructives. i have a question. In webcams all of them have a polarizing film for watch the things in the visible spectrum. This ESP32 can view in the visible and in IR (infraRED). I need to use Infrared camera in Arduino projects, do you know if i can use this, or another camera or doing a magic trick with a polarizing material? Again. Thanks for the videos.

[@thisoldjeepcj5]

Search KZbin for ESP32 and you will find instructions on how to remove the infrared filter from the 2640 or other cameras for use with IR led lighting.

[@BlondieSL]

Is there a way to record video directly to the computer or NAS hard drive? (network drive or directly on a PC) ?? I know that it can be done to the SD card, but I need a remote cam and the ability to record either via the browser to a hard drive, or if it has the ability, to map to a network drive and folder and record directly to that. ????

[@the1spyderryder]

Great video! But can you transmit the video via the wifi?

[@mohsiniqbal2351]

Can we use ESP32CAM as a normal ESP32 without the camera but using the microSD card for data logging?

[@wishicouldarduino8880]

I got one 3 days ago no sd but still cool.

[@Moose254]

I indeed have always wanted to know who's been eating my jellybeans, Thank You.

[@john543]

Do you have a link to a MAC version of the SmartDisk software, I can't find it.

[@KYMarty]

This is off topic but I have a request that many others may be interested in also. I struggle trying to connect peripheral devices to my boards. Trying to decipher GPIO## vs D##, TX01, TX02, SPI01, SPI02. It seems like I work for days on every display (and other items) I try to hook up to different devices. Everything is labeled differently. Add to that, most tutorials say you can use any pin for any connection on some boards but how? Today I worked with an ESP32 DEVKITV1 and a Wemos 1327 display. After about 4 hours and multiple hook up attempts and multiple different examples the best I got was a bunch of flickering dots before I gave up...again. I don't want a video showing how to hook up my specific combination. I think a lot of us could benefit from a tutorial on deciphering pins and SPI, IIC and UART type connections. I'd rather learn how to figure it out for myself than to be just told connect pin 1 to pin A etc. I've got OLED's, LCD's, 7 Segment, E-Paper and unless it is IIC it rarely works. Even the boards without a QWIIK interface can be difficult with IIC. Thanks for listening.

[@philipp9651]

hi great stuff on your channle was woundering if you can add day/month/time and cam number to the picture saved ? in the picture itself? not the file name

[@riccardotognetti1875]

Should the flash always remain on?

[@virendraparihar6982]

I want to reinstall programming in my this esp32 cam from new point bcz some features r not working so what I need to do ?

[@richardroy6747]

Could we use the command pinMode(x,INPUT_PULLUP) instead of using external resistor?

[@thisoldjeepcj5]

Yes, but, it is not available on all pins and only one has pull down so final answer: It depends. :)

[@sendawahyuandika7851]

makasih om

[@m0ck1N9jay]

how connect esp32 cam to zerotier-one... thanks

[@followembedded1549]

Hello !! I want to store camera live stream data like video in sd card . how to do this?

[@paulalmquist5683]

@6:26 "... It's a micro SD port ..." should be "micro USB" port. Interesting subject. This is in my project queue but unfortunately not very close to the top right now. Well done video as unusual.

[@mohamedfarid7499]

i have issues ( A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP32: Timed out waiting for packet header ) ?

[@bilalfayad12]

one question is by using this extension board connected to the ESP32 camera module, do you need the RFID module to flash the code and how are you powering up this ESP32 camera?

[@bilalfayad12]

I meant the FTDI* module

[@benda2250]

is it possible to not use the resistor ?

[@tonyp4894]

how can i modify the sketch so that the images are sent to my computer through wifi instead of putting the images on the micro id card ??? Thank you

[@mikejohn5573]

A big subject that nobody seems to have talked about is this: Can the SD card on an ESP 32 Cam be read and manipulated remotely? A lot of times these cameras are in remote locations and it is not easy to pull out the card and read the pictures.

[@electronerd]

Not directly, but you could add such a thing to your app

[@jyvben1520]

the webserver could be adapted to show the list of files on the sdcard and let you transfer them one by one probably ... but memory work space could be the problem ... if you know the file name range you may not need a webpage (less to code), just have a loop on your pc trying wget on all the file names on the webserver.

[@Rob_King_of_the_Plants]

There are FTP server libraries. You can access , download, upload and delete data with programs like FileZilla.

[@TheJcrist]

You can do that easily. There is a web server you can run on this thing and you can do whatever you like with it as long as the server is up and connected to WiFi

[@mohsiniqbal1724]

Hi. Is it possible to use multiple GPIO pins of ESP32CAM along with the SD Card, if its camera is not used or plugged in? Kind Regards, Mohsin.

[@TheJcrist]

You can use pins 12-13 if SD is activated in a "slow" mode.

[@tarsamsingh1299]

Thanks a lot for shared knowledge ,

[@mikejohn5573]

It would be great if you could download the pictures stored on the SD card of an ESP 32 Cam and then erase the files once they have been downloaded. Does anyone know if that is possible?

[@digihz_data]

Yes it is very possible, implementing a webbserver is the most easiest I think.

[@the1spyderryder]

I bought 4 cams with the programmers in the same packages. But my question is can the cam stream the video live?

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Why does your picture of the hookup show the DTFI jumpered for 5 volts surely this is an error

[@slimplynth]

This board scares me, my spine is currently goosed so I'm struggling to keep a steady hand with the iron (have ruined one board with the zero ohm resistor mod).. why can't they just use a dip switch.. it's already constrained in depth by the same pin height..

[@PyubX]

How do i send the images off of the SD card via wifi?

[@citizengkar7824]

Now all we need is night vision :-)

[@terrancevangemert7508]

hmmm Why not use the SD disk to record the file number rather than the EEPROM. new disk new file number at zero. simple push button also can zero the image count. If one can read the disk one can write to it, the camera does not have exclusive access or does it?

[@digihz_data]

Good idea if it works,then we are not limited to the number of eprom writes to.

[@bimokayoba]

why do we format the SD card to fat32 ?

[@imrekiss9534]

Is there any kind of microcontroller+CAM modul which can take picture with good enough quality? Becasuse this ESP32-CAM+OV2640 has rather very bad picture quality.

[@mahidul956]

You can try raspberry pi zero with its various camera modules

[@Lugeix]

Have you tried to Gmail the photos? I did. It worked for a year, and I was shut down. Told I have to use a service. Is there a way to get your images, on your cell, without a paying for a service?

[@mihaisandu7479]

ok but what if I want to use a 128 GB microSD card? becose it shuld work

[@kiena26]

how to capture automatically every 5 second and send it to database ? anyone know ?

[@lautungho1]

yeah, why the photo is looks like green??

[@KalikaWeerasinghe]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@garymelander]

Having limited success here. My biggest issue so far is, after loading up the ESP32 library, I ended up with no less than TWO HUNDRED boards. Not one f them was called ESP32-CAM. Only two with CAM in the name and they don't work. Does anyone have any ideas?

[@mellee3436]

AI Thinker ?

[@Car_B_lovers_154official7]

🎯🎯🎯❤️🔥🔥🔥

[@mikaelbjornson2666]

Skip to 12:30 if you already know the module and don't want to hear the full phrase "ESP-32-cam-module" being said too many times ;)

[@mystery_1101]

And skipping all the theory? No way.

[@mikaelbjornson2666]

@@mystery_1101 Well, if you’re unfamiliar with the module your should watch it. And possibly study reading a bit also, since that was what I wrote in my original comment :).

[@toddhodgson2130]

I got a set of these. 50 percent cam detection failure .

[@toufikauto6620]

Why sdcard file system damaged sfter remove it from esp32cam

[@petera1000]

great video. One annoying problem with this card is the use of a common GPIO pin for the LED flash and the SD card which means reading and writing to the SD will cause the LED to flash. Very annoying. Here is a hardware bit of surgery you can do to isolate the flash LED from the SD card (by cutting one surface mount resistor) and splicing it to the smaller LED's GPIO line (by cutting out the little surface mount LED). kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqDIpWSkmaxrick

[@cirklare]

I'm the first By the way, This is awesome tutorial

[@cibimathew7738]

Take a shot every time he says esp32 cam

[@alainfrenois33480]

Hello, I never managed to get it to work and I bought several and each time it doesn't work on many videos you see that it's so easy but in truth it's not easy at all to ask yourself if the videos are real are stupid or a nice montage for idiots like me

[@user-yi2mo9km2s]

STM32 does much better.

[@thisoldjeepcj5]

Please explain. It doesn't have EEPROM or PSRAM or WiFi. Perhaps what model STM32 do you refer to?

[@AdityaMehendale]

Please, No "FTDI" ffs - a mere "usb-serial" will do. FTDI has displayed dodgy work-ethics and ought not to be needlessly popularized.