Raspberry Pi Cameras - The BIG Picture

I’m back with an in-depth look at choosing and using Raspberry Pi Cameras, including the new HQ Camera. All your Pi camera questions answered in one place, including how to repair a broken camera! Check out the Table of Contents below to jump to a specific section if you're in a hurry.
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Seven years ago when the Raspberry Pi was updated to include a CSI camera connector it was game-changing. Since then thousands of projects have been built using cameras, and there is an extensive selection of cameras available.
Today I’ll cover every aspect of the Raspberry Pi camera, starting with a simplified explanation of how the camera works. I’ll also answer the question everyone wants to know - can you do 4K video with the new HQ Camera?
We’ll then see how to use the camera with both the command-line and from within your Python programs. I’ll also show you a GUI you can install to work with the camera if you’d prefer that.
I‘ll even show you how to repair or upgrade a Version 2 camera by replacing its video sensor with an improved model that uses interchangeable lenses.
And then we’ll put five Raspberry Pi cameras to the test, including the new HQ camera. And, just to see how good the quality of the images and video really can get, I'll also compare them all to a Canon EOS M100 camera. Maybe I can start filming KZbin videos with a Pi Camera!
If you need information about the Raspberry Pi camera you’re sure to find it here or in the accompanying article on the DroneBot Workshop website at dbot.ws/picam. The article includes the simple Python code samples I used, plus links to some valuable resources.
The article accompanying this video also has instructions for converting the H264 video files to MP4, and for streaming video using VLC Media Player. Stuff that I couldn't fit into an already very long video!
Here is a breakdown of today's video, you can click on the timestamp to jump to the specific location:
00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - How Raspberry Pi Cameras work
10:04 - Look at some cameras
13:42 - HQ Camera Lens Installation
14:53 - Hooking up the cable
17:47 - Preparing the Raspberry Pi
19:33 - Images and Video from the Command Line
23:21 - Images and Video using Python
28:02 - PiCameraApp GUI
31:59 - Repairing a broken camera
34:18 - Test Setup & Methodology
38:52 - Image Tests (Color High)
43:06 - Image Tests (Low Light)
45:09 - Image Tests (B&W Focus)
48:56 - Video Test Samples
From the inexpensive Version 1 cameras to the new HQ Camera with interchangeable lenses, you’re sure to find a solution for your next image or video application here.
Hope you enjoy the video!
Bill

[@Dronebotworkshop]

FINALLY another video, so sorry for the delay! It's a big one so if you want to skip to a specific section just use the Table of Contents that is in the description. I apologize for the lack of videos lately, should be another one very soon.

[@Sherwin657]

It's possible to have the chapters on the video timeline support.google.com/youtube/answer/9884579?hl=en

[@lemono1664]

do one for the Jetson

[@flojotube9323]

DroneBot Workshop - this should say “FINALLY - Someone realizes that NOBODY before you considered a THOROUGH Rpi camera educational video that explains ALL OPTIONS!!!” Thank you. I’m STRUGGLING to even GET STARTED with my Rpi and all my fun gadgets that sit here collecting dust & depression.... Videos like this help a lot and provide encouragement.... Now all I need is the rest of the knowledge I’m missing... I’ve never wanted to learn something more, and never had such a hard time finding an easy to understand way to learn it. Sucks.

[@electronpath]

You do put a lot of work into your videos, and I guess quality > quantity.

[@153SCORN]

I you want to use it as a CCTV over the WiFi - github.com/jacksonliam/mjpg-streamer?fbclid=IwAR1TIW2y4dFjNfSwIEQAZpxGWCilNi69YgPxsxVeEJ_LAFn3PyJDc6AliJY

[@alekseikostikov27]

Your channel has become one of the first resources I look to for information on a given subject. Thorough, accurate, pertinent information. No clickbait, sales pitch, or misinformation. I thank you for sharing your knowledge and for the time and effort you put into each of your videos. It literally saves a person incredible amounts of time, money not having to duplicate all of the testing you kindly share with us.

[@MFJLabs]

And no distracting music ... a HUGE thank you for that.

[@OsoPolarClone]

I loved and chuckled reading your “hey don’t forget to do these things” notes on you video test image! I really enjoy your well thought out videos and well written articles.

[@Fred-lb5jp]

The greatest teacher in explaining electronics I have ever seen on KZbin and compares equally to my pneumatic instructor which was the best I ever encountered You have the right combination of a lot of great qualities to be able to transfer knowledge to people that want to learn about electronics, which is the future.

[@Willy_Tepes]

What I am most interested in is how to use cameras from old cell phones with the Pi.

[@YanasChanell]

Yes, that would be nice to know. I have a dead Samsung Zoom with 10x optical zoom camera, I hope it's possible to use somehow

[@spacejunky4380]

Lol right? But there are so many questions and some much to how it actually works that it isn't a very simple answer I imagine

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

Glad to see you back and thanks for the effort to put together this outstanding information.

[@TheOleHermit]

Watched this prior to purchasing my HQ cameras. Learned how to gstream dual RPi V2 cameras on the Jetson Xavier NX. Received the 2 HQ cameras and a StereoPi CM3+ board, but couldn't get beyond raspistill & raspivid. Spent the past week searching YT, wikis, & forums. Learned a lot about installing OpenCV, uv4l, etc. But, couldn't find the answers I needed until I reviewed this video and followed your links. Excellent tutorials! Thank you so much for showing us the light at the end of the tunnel.🙏 Now, I simply gotta go & giterdun.😎💨

[@beauregardslim1914]

Thanks so much for this comprehensive overview.

[@jmcbike]

When I broke my Pi (Ver 1.3) camera lens, I just removed the broken lens, preserved the sensor and installed a new housing and lens, added a cutout in the housing for the ribbon cable, aligned it over the sensor and secured with hot melt glue. Works great, plus allowed use of a longer lens.

[@ArulMoorthyM]

Very professionally done! Very much appreciated!!!

[@akust]

so much information, so many details and tests of the different cameras.. great! Thank you!

[@stevetobias4890]

Your workshops are bloody brilliant mate

[@lawrencewheeler3573]

Hi Bill You have set a high standard in presentation with de-mystifying and getting us fellow Life Long Learners up and running in practical applications. My new year wish is to work towards your standard in helping others. Cheers from a small farm in New Zealand Lx

[@79ober]

as always, a very detailed and informative demo and explanation, great one!

[@jonathanrash4146]

Was looking for an overview exactly like this, thank you so much

[@tinkmarshino]

Well done Bill.. it has inspired me to dust off some of my cameras and even get a new one or two and set up a few little experiments... It has been a while since I have used one.. Glad to see you back by the way.. hope you are having a great summer! It is nice to know that during the cold and miserable winter time you will have more videos.. But it is time to make hay as they say.. see you in the funny papers..

[@Richardj410]

Thanks I look forward to your videos, sometime waiting is a pain but it is always worth the wait.

[@jeffk412]

if there is a video more thorough about Raspberry pi cameras, well then I just would not believe it. Well done!

[@AS-iu3pl]

Awesome video. Really clear and in-depth explanation. Appreciated.

[@jpino528]

This is quality content, why channels like this one doesn't have millions of subscribers?

[@mflood35]

When I was reading one of your comments a day or so ago I realized that I had failed to send any positive comments about you workshop sessions. Your included details such as taking time to refer to Amperes instead of amps is an excellent one. So many places assume that the customer KNOWS a fact when If it's a new device or product they might not know. Like many people I buy a lot of things from Amazon. It would be so much more helpful if instead of showing several different photos of an integrate circuit the would post a link to a data sheet for that device. And your workshop fills a lots voids. A recent example is a workshop where along the way you explained that if you did "such and such" a function or operation might or probably fail. What a person should do instead is....(explanation). Thanks so much to your good and useful work. I have become a fan and have shared links to your workshops with friends who, like me, create things for themselves or others. Sincerely Mike Flood Illinois, USA.

[@BrianB2579]

......THanks for the great video and fine explanation of the Cameras..... from the UK

[@MikeSpille]

Great explanations and production. Very well done, sir. Thank you for sharing.

[@caminuslabs4750]

Brilliant as always!

[@tpobrienjr]

Thank you for a thorough presentation on RasPi cameras....

[@eliasbailey1067]

Gran trabajo. I'm glad you're back. Excellent video. Best regards.

[@robertportelliiii7787]

This is a quality production. Thank you

[@leyasep5919]

19:10 "that's me in the corner" REM intensifies ;-)

[@kdausu90]

Very, very informative. Thank you so much!

[@MrBobWareham]

Thanks, Bill, that was a very informative video, as I want to start using my version 2 camera with my old v3 Pi and a bird box for next year in the garden. All the best Bob in the UK

[@glynnburke8139]

Great video, packed with excellent information

[@tubeDude48]

This was GREAT Bill...thanks!

[@distancelab2010]

Excellent, thanks so much for all your work. Very interesting.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Interesting and well presented thanks from Orlando

[@labsanity8049]

nice camparison! thx for the effort. helps me a lot to decide which one to get

[@user-lt6jg5nw6q]

Hello! Thanks a lot for the amazing review!

[@cukymonster33]

Nice video, very informative. Thank you

[@anandmoon5701]

Supper information on various camera modules.

[@PB-mw2qu]

Great video been trying to resolve the various type for raspberry pie

[@herewegofans]

Just found the workshop. My kind of learning. LOVE the power points. Why not teach us like students? We are aren't we? Thank you for taking the time to share these videos.

[@NewAgeDIY]

A lot of time and effort has gone into this review. I’m sure it’s going to be a reference video on the Pi camera’s for years to come. Having used the V2 camera in my MotionEyesOS projects, I am aways impressed by the quality of my stills and videos my camera provides. Still waiting for stock on the Raspberry Pi hi-quality camera’s to be able purchase one. Thanks again for this review. Be safe and healthy and hope to you in your next video

[@jayvadgama5663]

Brilliant Video. Many thanks for a very clear explanation.

[@SimonLane]

Great video thanks for posting this. I've got the v2 noir and ir cameras and have been considering the new HQ one to upgrade my MotionEyeOS pi cctv project. Might explore the fish eye lense after that video.

[@CarlinComm]

Hi, great video as always. That was cool swapping out the camera module, I hadn't thought that would be so easy. Fish eye lens etc could be very handy. Have you found or tested any ways of getting audio into a video recording on the PI? I have an USB audio interface from Adafruit, but haven' t spent enough time to see if I could mix audio from that and video from the CSI Pi camera. Best wishes and keep up the great work!

[@sibujacob977]

beautiful explanation !!

[@schmdt]

thanks for making this video, very informative :D

[@samuelec]

Very well explained, thank you sir

[@davidrobertson7881]

Thank you. Excellent clear and evidenced based. Well presented. Well done.

[@yv6eda]

Excellent video, thanks!

[@jamesgrant5945]

Thank you for the video. I learnt alot.

[@Stevon2012]

Thanks, It was very informative. I just bought my first raspberry pi and so far, I love it. I want to write some new camera software, but that may take a while... If I do I will let you know, lol!

[@rc.9764]

Bill...you are a number 1... you know how to teach...I always waiting for your videos..thumbs up

[@jameswesthoff2410]

Thanks for another great video!! Will there be a video concerning DB1 in the near future??

[@Forensic1Man]

Really, really nice video! Well done!

[@henryrussell2404]

Thank you for a brilliant video as usual.

[@kYLEkAPLAN]

Love your videos DroneBot! You pay so much attention to getting all the details correct, I wanted to let you know what '4k' or 2160p video is actually 3840x2160 rather than the 3480x2160 that you show in your video. REAL 4k video is actually 4096x2160 that most native 4k projectors support.

[@rogerjenson5689]

I have talked myself out of buying the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera several times due to my lack of knowledge about Raspberry Pi cameras. Now all I need to do is decide which lens I want to buy with the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera. Thanks for the excellent video.

[@hotquebec]

this is very good ! great speaking voice,wellexplained succint topic and GSOH !

[@tedsykora1858]

Very nice and helpful video.

[@contouraerials]

Thanks for the video. Thinking about using the HQ and 16mm as a livestream webcam looking outside

[@tge96]

Great video! Thank you!

[@l0n9x]

thank you for this video, amazing！

[@maxreynolds679]

Great video, thanks

[@krelis77]

Great review #Dronebot Workshop 👍

[@MarcusBiesioroff]

Nice summary, thank you. One question, where can I find downloadable test charts that you're using for testing optics?

[@TerboBlitz]

Great presentation -- very useful. What was the approximate exposure time used in your Image Tests (Low Light) at 43:06?

[@wishicouldarduino8880]

Awesome video I missed this one 👍

[@DS-es7id]

THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU DO SIR, GREAT CONTENT!.

[@johnstevynmburu3792]

This video is very detailed. I had to give you thumbs up for that & I never comment on youtube videos.

[@inlywang8157]

such an amazing review

[@aman72kamboj]

your video are always good. thank you

[@davidl1813]

Thanks for the great summary of the cameras, however it would have been nice to also have more comparisons on the video usage of these cameras, such as ghosting of moving images, as well as day and night usage. You did wave your hand around a little for 1 camera, but not enough to see how much ghosting there would be in real life usage. I'm thinking of typical pi usage such as diy security cameras, garden animal watching, etc. (We have a hawk that sometimes picks up bread from our garden so it would be cool to get it on video.). Thanks again.

[@levon9]

This was an excellent and comprehensive video on the Pi Cameras. Thank you for sharing this. I just got a Pi 4 for some image recognition work, so picking the right camera will be important - so I plan to watch your video again. Can you recommend a good case for the Pi4 that accommodates the camera ribbon cable? I'm not sure if active cooling will be required. Did you mention what the 16 mm zoom lens would be equivalent to in regular 35 mm photography? An 80 mm zoom lens?

[@Phlupke]

Hello from Belgium, very nice vidéo, as usual. A little suggestion, if you don't mind. When comparing two results on one screen, display the same part of the photo, this would allow a better comparison. Thanks for all. Regards.

[@BrianPalmerEDU]

Thanks for such a thorough and well thought-out overview on using these cameras. As usual, very useful! I, as a number of others, would love to see you explain how you might incorporate audio with the video. Since the Pi doesn't have any audio input and the camera modules don't have audio, I'm told incorporating a USB mic is the route to go. Do you agree? Can you show how to capture video with audio in real-time, or if it would be otherwise necessary to capture audio and video simultaneously (as separate files) and then merge them in the Pi to a single H.264 video with audio? Thanks so much!!

[@andreaswolfesberger6140]

thank you very much for this video

[@patwicker1358]

Good video. Glad to hear from you, I was about to organize a search party. :-)

[@yurkshirelad]

Another excellent video! Where do you get the magnifying lens from?

[@rexmcgurk9792]

Great video. Witch pi cam would you use for day and night for outside surveillance?

[@p.k.parchure7291]

Excellent work. I have an old practika film slr with couple of m42 thread lenses. Can old slr be retrofitted with this cam. Or can m42 thread lenses be used.

[@thehappycoder3760]

Very helpful

[@stevedonkers9087]

I am a printing press operator by trade, and the plate mounter I use has two Pis with cameras. One of the issues it has is that some vibrations (like what is generated when peeling the plate off of the stickyback to reposition it) can cause the interface to glitch, which can in turn cause a complete Pi restart. Initially it was thought to be a poor connection, but this plate mounter model seems to have this problem universally.

[@1minutechess]

I love longer video in details anyone who is patience enough get good education

[@timsaloga]

That was excellent.

[@MucaroBoricua]

Yes, another video. I was getting worried.

[@johndoe3092]

Sir, you have a golden voice

[@gexgeko6520]

That was fantastic. TY

[@sprockylock391]

Hi great video I have a old tablet after watching your video ime wondering could I use the camera from it ?

[@michaelclement1337]

This is made me think about a telescope I've got, perhaps I could use a Pi with a camera somehow connected to my telescope. BTY how hard is it to add audio to the video on a Pi?

[@digital945]

not properly tested at last pictures i know there were limitations...... appreciate the whole video,was so informative and kudos to your hard work sir. so informative. subscribed to your channel.

[@Shadowcruise99]

It would have been nice when comparing the Canon EOS to the Raspberry Pi cameras during the color test, if the same colors samples had been displayed side by side.

[@projectinquiries698]

Great information! FYI... you flipped the 4 and 8 in the 4K resolution description; should be 3840.

[@mrstalenhoef]

Awesome! This has everything for starting out with the camera. Nice pace.

[@veereshs.m4510]

very informative .... I would like to get the Focal length of arducam OV5647 on focussed object and run time. Please can show some insights on it. how to get the focal length of lens during focussing.

[@mohamedabdelgawad7880]

QUESTION! It's a very nice video giving detailed explanation for different cameras. I'm searching for the most suitable RPi camera that I can use on a distance of ~3m for color processing application. Can I have an idea on the distance between the camera and the measured targets in your video? I may choose the RPi HQ camera but the main disadvantage is it takes only a segment of the video, so it may not be very suitable in my case or maybe I can use two camera in parallel!

[@alexanderfilippou5501]

Your Channel is awesome

[@JianGongWeb]

@9:20. Isn't the current Pi 4 using VideoCore VI (version 6), so how about the support for H.265 and HDR in Pi 4? Thanks for the awesome video.

[@jcjensenllc]

Enjoyed this video. Was disappointed by the color changes in video as you moved. How would you record and sync sound in video recording? Would like to see a hack to get a 12 or 16 megapixel camera from a current smart phone working on raspberry pi.

[@leonoliveira8652]

I was hoping for some examples on the max and min zoom levels of the 16mm lens

[@RossPotts]

@dronebotworkshop, referencing @9:50, I just had a HELL of a weekend trying to get 2 arducam RPI HQ cameras to work, to no avail. After purchasing a branded RPI HQ camera I was successful. I can only guess that the arducams were intended for Jetsons because the MIPI connector was 22 pin 📌n each. The branded camera had 15 pins. Still can’t get the branded camera to talk to my RPI 5, but that MAY be a cable issue: RPI 5 connectors are 22 pins, and my 15-22 pin cable did NOT work. Anyway, I returned the Arducams. Now I just need to justify to the family CEO getting a 2nd camera for my telescope, LOL!