Raspberry Pi Zero is a PRO HQ webcam for less than $100!

How does the HQ Camera stack up against other high quality webcams? WAIT, you can use a Raspberry Pi AS A WEBCAM?
In this video, I'll show you now to set up a Raspberry Pi Zero with the HQ Camera and the 6mm lens as a high-quality webcam to rival the quality of other cameras costing even more (if you can find them this year!).
And I'm not going to make you dive into the guts of your Raspberry Pi and compile code or anything like that-it's just one automated job that runs to set everything up for you, on any Raspberry Pi! (Right now it's only working correctly on the Pi Zero though!).
Mentioned in the video:
- Raspberry Pi Webcam Open Source project: github.com/gee...
- Pi Hut Mounting Plate instructions: thepihut.com/b...
All the parts used to build the webcam:
- Raspberry Pi Zero W (can also use Zero): www.raspberryp...
- Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera: www.raspberryp...
- Raspberry Pi Zero camera cable: thepihut.com/p...
- 6mm lens for HQ Camera: thepihut.com/p...
- The Pi Hut Pi Zero HQ Camera mounting plate: thepihut.com/p...
And a few mounting options (affiliate links):
- SmallRig Ballhead Clamp Mount: amzn.to/33828gy
- Joby GorillaPod Magnetic Mini: amzn.to/3nNw8pX
- Joby GorillaPod 5K stand and ballhead: amzn.to/2IZa4Kd
- 25 inch flexible gooseneck webcam desk mount: amzn.to/3nOrxDO
Support me on Patreon: / geerlingguy
Sponsor me on GitHub: github.com/spo...
#RaspberryPi #PiWebcam
Contents:
00:00 - The Raspberry Pi Webcam
00:35 - Existing webcam problems
02:19 - Parts needed
03:40 - Existing solutions for Pi Webcams
04:45 - Easy Pi Webcam software setup
06:05 - Camera assembly
09:01 - How well does it work?
09:33 - Downsides: AF, mic, resolution
11:17 - Teasers and Bloopers

[@colemickens]

This is the highest form of KZbin videos. 10/10 excellent. Thanks for making the project and recording this video.

[@philippbeckonert1678]

: The highest form is no form.

[@wd269]

"John microphone"....that was funny Jeff. I literally laughed out loud.

[@jfan4reva]

No 'John microphone', but I've seen about a million microphone 'jacks' - lol! They're everywhere!

[@stamasd8500]

Thank you, what a perfect timing! I am actually in the process of trying to do exactly that. I have 3 pi zeros which I plan on using like that. Literally one of them and a camera module are on my bench as a WIP right now. :D

[@JeffGeerling]

Do it!

[@Aionaddict]

I love the outtakes. This is literally me trying to make a KZbin video. Ordering all parts, can't wait to review this build!

[@backacheache]

I think it serving a webpage for you to control exposure, white balance etc would be great, also as most people want 1080p the 4k sensor could also give a virtual pan and tilt

[@patw1687]

Jeff, thanks for doing all the hard work on this project. I just finished building the webcam, and it works like a charm. I can't believe that the image is that clear. Can't wait to mount it to my telescope. Thanks again.

[@junkyardgaming1360]

I had some issues running this off of the zero w but with the new zero w2 it runs perfectly

[@JP-di9ny]

Still not working for me.

[@bobbyh5016]

i had issues running on the zero w as well, i got it all working using 2020-02-07 Raspbian release from his github page and no updates to the os...if you get theModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'yaml....then try pip3 install pyyaml... good luck

[@hercion]

unbelievable your channel has only 81 thousand viewers.. This USB RaspiCam project is *amazing* ! great work !

[@Chris.Wiley.]

Just assembled my pi-zero camera and I can confirm it works! One thing I did differently is I started with the Raspberry Pi OS Lite that is command-line only, but it works equally well. Thanks, Jeff, for the tutorial and github files!

[@ylanstockholm]

Great! Most of my Pis run headless.

[@konserv]

That's awesome. I replaced 4 cameras for last years and always experienced problems with quality of mount, quality of cables, autofocus, etc. And the majority of those cameras costed me about $100 each. My next webcam would be rpi-based! I can replace USB cable, I can manually focus it. That's great!

[@tipprich]

Did this project back in December and I've been using the Pi webcam for all of my online college classes. I couldn't fine the plastic piece at the time so I used cardboard and zip-ties. Super sketch but hey, it works. Thanks for an awesome project! I'm looking forward to making your Pi NAS pretty soon.

[@Latchfpv]

For someone who's yet to purchase a pi, I'm ever so delighted I subbed to your channel. Always such good content. Definitely will be making quite a few purchases in the future...

[@hongy20]

I just setup my own Pi Webcam this weekend and I am very happy with the result. Awesome project! And thank you Jeff for the detailed instructions

[@Buzzygirl63]

Excellent tutorial. I am planning to get a Pi Zero W and looking for an easy project, and I just so happen to need a webcam for one of my computers!

[@JeffGeerling]

A winning combination!

[@TheSupertecnology]

I came across this video in search of a good HQ Pi camera implementation, since I'm planning on giving my Octoprint the ability to watch over my 3D prints. This is by far the best use of such a camera, and way more convenient than just using a long, fragile ribbon cable for connecting the camera instead of a USB cable. At first I thought it would be overkill, but the Pi Zero 2W is so cheap and you made the process so easy, I might as well try it and flex about the interchangeable lenses in the end.

[@handlebard]

I know the camera is at the heart of this video but I really smiled at the (currently) latest comment in the tasks on the git project. “Complete overhaul. Let’s make this thing actually work” Refreshing to see an Ansible master sometimes just need to start again - makes me feel better.

[@JeffGeerling]

Haha! That's every project for me :D - fail 100 times, then find a way to make it work on the 101st try.

[@jaysilence3314]

Thank you for this excellent tutorial and Ansible playbook! For anyone wanting to directly output the video to the HDMI output the solution is simple: * Use raspi-config to autologin to the CLI * place 'raspivid -t 0' as the last command into the .bashrc file in the home directory of the pi user. Can not be used as a webcam then. The output goes either to USB or to HDMI, not both at the same time.

[@T3hBeowulf]

An excellent, real-world use-case for a Raspberry Pi Zero (W) *AND* an excellent, real-world use-case for Ansible all in one. This is fantastic!

[@JeffGeerling]

Always nice to sneak Ansible in there somewhere ;)

[@diggleboy]

Love this Jeff! DIY Webcam is something I've been looking for and this solves that problem.

[@drjasontimothyjones]

I cant beleave how awesome this works, its one of the best projects I have done with my Pi and something I have been looking for for years.....there will be beer money sent I can assure you

[@JeffGeerling]

Mmm 🍻

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

I've been thinking about a Pi camera as an astrocam. I'll be excited for that one.

[@JeffGeerling]

Me too! What I'm pondering right now is if I'd be able to set up a Pi that stacks images and also controls a motor for a built-in star tracker!

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

@@JeffGeerling Same! I have thought about a remote telescope setup, as winter sets in. Get the scope out, and then run it from inside where it is warm.

[@percytse2370]

@@JeffGeerling Can't wait to see that.

[@PeterMountUK]

There are adaptors out there for C/CS mounts so you can replace the eyepiece with the PI HQ camera - got one but not tried it at night yet. I've also done a 3d printed case for the camera & a 3A but designed it so the camera part can be housed separately so not much weight on the telescope

[@JeffGeerling]

@@BuckeyeStormsProductions Always nice when it's cold outside! Usually the best nights for viewing, too :/

[@MarkHadley206]

Jeff, Some disagree that not having a microphone on the camera is a downside; it is a blessing.

[@JamesWebster1975]

Great video, made perfect by the outtakes at the end. Thanks Jeff!

[@WhiplashHell]

I would like to suggest a video.... a raspberry pi home security system with a raspberry pi or a pi zero and a raspberry pi camera....... with focus on recording in intermittent segments like a dash cam does deleting videos after a certain time or when card is full or file limit is full... or with a motion sensor... and also being able to record in the dark... like a camera set up pointing at a drive way from inside window or at front door to the house.... just a suggestion... i enjoy and appreciate all your videos they are all very well informed and educational... thanks and have a great day.

[@sarcatonym]

This is great. I followed all the steps and it all works perfectly. One tiny thing is that step 6 of the instructions doesn’t also install git at the moment so step 7 fails 🙂.

[@JeffGeerling]

Ah, good catch! Fixed the instructions here: github.com/geerlingguy/pi-webcam/commit/6ffaaa8009a64efa71ca9e16d5633e9910868b71

[@radiicall]

"complicated stuff like git clone" ah yes, the complicated command.

[@JeffGeerling]

And then he went on to use that command to clone the pi-webcam repo! What a nut!

[@MrMFserver]

@@JeffGeerling a complete MADMAN!

[@robbietorkelsonn8509]

@@JeffGeerling would be more automated with docker run ...

[@Lab-Douze]

Tried it on a Raspberry Pi Zero (first one, not the W model) with the standard camera module (v2.1). Using it connected to a Linux computer. It's working great! Thanks for sharing this. I made the setup on a Pi model 3B, installing Raspberry OS Lite, then plugged the card in the Pi Zero when the ansible script was finished.

[@huybo02]

Oh, man. I found you 3 years ago when searching for high quality webcam

[@RichardStrong86]

I built a Pi Zero camera too and there's definitely some issues at low light. I get a lot of flickering in low light, and it's not frame rate / shutter speed issues. I added ferrite core chokes to eliminate interference on the power cable but it still persists. With regards to performance: I set it up to boot up with "Raspivid" running which will output a preview image via the HDMI output (which you'd have to deal with on the computer software side). This will also bypass a lot of lag and performance problems as it is mostly passing the HDMI through the Pi without added processing. You can kill that process and restart it manually if you want to adjust settings (iso, frame rate, white balance, etc). In theory you can use it for whatever purpose you like as it will operate like a standard video camera, even recording to attached storage. Add a PiJuice HAT with battery and you'll have portable power.

[@RichardStrong86]

Also, if it's on the same wifi network as your computer you can use VNC Viewer to control your Pi remotely complete with a GUI.

[@tombelanger5489]

I've used this for a few months using a regular V2 8 megapixel Pi Cam (not HD). It always works in Zoom and Teams. I have had it running in the background all day without issue to other apps. I've disconnected and reconnected the USB cable throughout the day, also without issue. There are limitations with the regular V2 Pi camera itself. There is no white balancing, so sometimes my face is a bit redder than normal. The auto-exposure will underexpose your face when there is a window or other bright light in the frame.

[@adrianwiuk]

A great project which was really simple to follow and setup, so thanks for the ansible automation. Would love to hear about any other uses you find for the HQ camera...

[@apollyon7573]

I agreed with you that spending the time and using a pi and/or pi camera to do things that can be solved by cheap alternatives, SUCKS. 1) Home surveillance using multiple Pis with IR cameras was garbage and was able to buy a cheap 360 1080p camera set from random company which had a full app and local storage for 1/2 the price of just the Pi at $25 on sale. (FAIL) 2) Monitoring multiple 3d printers was nice but the pi (3b, 3b+ 4 2gb) gets SUPER hot just running the web interface and with the Pi cameras the resolution and frame rate that I could get it to run was worthless (Before pandemic I was able to get the c920 for $30 which was way better except the auto focus would lock on something in the background). (FAIL) 3) Pi hole - Ad blocking for all (SUCCESS) I am glad that you got this to work and it looks great. Good job!

[@ridingnerdy6406]

Arducam makes a 12mp camera module with autofocus. It adds $40 to the total but might be worth looking into.

[@JeffGeerling]

Interesting! It looks like the code for autofocus (python in this case) is not too complicated, either: github.com/ArduCAM/RaspberryPi/blob/master/Motorized_Focus_Camera/Autofocus.py It won't compete with a high-end mirrorless SLR or anything like that, but using OpenCV and a contrast-detect algorithm could be better than nothing! Definitely warrants further investigation 🤔

[@arducamforraspberrypi8168]

Hi! Actually Arducam also makes a 12MP High Quality Camera Webcam Adapter, *with microphone*, and pushes up to *1080P 60fps*, 2k 30fps, 4K 20fps and 12MP 10fps: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4uxZaWmpLaqbaM

[@JeffGeerling]

@@arducamforraspberrypi8168 Ooh... I think I may need to pick up a few Arducams.

[@LowDoughTech]

I built this back in September, and was really happy with the results! I tried out a couple of different cmount lenses, 6mm, 8mm, and 25mm. It's got a crazy crop factor!

[@mlindholm]

I’m curious which focal length you found best as a “webcam equivalent”?

[@LowDoughTech]

@@mlindholm Definitely the 6mm for webcam all the way! The 8mm was a big jump, and for the 25 mm I literally had to be across the room! You can see the results on my channel, in a video called "Build a Better USB Webcam" I don't think I can post the link here, because KZbin will flag it as spam.

[@johnstogner6397]

Jeff, just wanted to say thank you and also to the developers of the various tools and libraries. This was a very fun project! For other folks benefit, I used a pi camera v2, mostly flawlessly. It was very slow in parts because I enabled the camera and had very little ram. I was foolishly on this youtube video and github (on the pi zero!) while doing this...that I do not recommend and will not repeat on the next round. But this worked flawlessly. Thank you again for the fun! AWESOME!

[@JeffGeerling]

Glad you got it working, thanks for posting your comment :)

[@TomSnijkers]

maaaan... love the bloopers! :) again a great video Jeff!

[@thegreenpickel]

Wow, this looks like it could make a really nice soldering microscope with the proper lens.

[@JeffGeerling]

Hmm... I didn't even think about using it for that purpose. But that would not be a bad idea at all!

[@benedolt]

That's a great idea! I already built the webcam using the 6mm lens - what lens do you think would be best for soldering? Some telelens, maybe 100mm?

[@JeffGeerling]

@@benedolt I would recommend either using extension tubes (just get a bunch of C->CS adapter rings and stack them) for a cheap solution, or get a C mount macro or close-up lens.

[@mynameiszoro]

I'm happy to be one of the first subscribers, epic content and outstanding quality and effort!

[@luukvanoijen7082]

what a coincidence, 7 seconds after uploading lol

[@JeffGeerling]

First reply to first comment!

[@tonyradle8747]

Here 7 mins after upload lol

[@shaigluskin1225]

This is great, can't wait to try!

[@luukvanoijen7082]

@@JeffGeerling oh hey lmao, i enjoyed the video :)

[@romanhanajik3185]

Day have 96 400 sec. Here is 130 000 subscribers. You are too late!

[@dansmith6909]

Dear Jeff, I just came to this video because looking at Pi cameras for a project. I noticed You said "i hope this video doesn't cause a shortage of pis" wow, you should buy lottery tickets man you can predict the future

[@makingwithsteve]

Just ordered parts for this project! Can't wait to tinker with it!

[@hammerheadcorvette4]

I'd be happy if I could use my Pixel 3 XL's camera without hassel. The phone is now out of support, but both front/rear Camera's are amazing for a Linux Webcam

[@BenMitro]

Wow, that is fantastic Jeff. Thank you for all the work and experience you put into the Raspberry Pi Webcam Open Source project. I'm thinking of housing it to IP67 water/dust proof standards (or better) and using it externally as a backup camera(s) on my camper trailer. I have to work out the heat dissipation issue that will create too. I have so much to do!!!

[@CoyoteEDC]

Know that this is a very reliable setup. I have used my Pi Zero with the HQ cam as a webcam since august as a teacher using Zoom. I literally have the webcam on and running on my Dell laptop 8am-3pm daily, and it just chugs along without much issue. Know that in the webcam settings of whatever app you are using you may want to up the brightness since the default setting runs a little dark.

[@JeffGeerling]

I hope to make that brightness setting a little easier to control as well in the uvc-gadget code. It's current default is tailored more towards use on a Mac.

[@jddoesdev]

I didn't learn from your mistake at 7:45. Please, if you're building one of these, remember to remove the ring for a 6mm camera! I spent way too long trying to figure why I couldn't focus.

[@stevenclarkson3643]

Thank you so much for sharing this info! Your timing is perfect, I'm a musician about to start streaming performances and I need to keep expenses down. After some quick looking around, I think I'll opt for the 2.8-12mm lens instead, a little extra expense, but the 125deg FOV will be great.

[@lesumsi]

Looking forward to the videos about the HQ module! Always thought about doing something with it, like a telescope with star tracking.

[@Astronomy_Live]

I found that the newest version of the raspberry pi operating system doesn't seem to work with this, so I started over with the legacy buster version. I also had to install Ansible using sudo apt install ansible after running sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. Running the ansible install at the end of the command shown in this video didn't work for some reason, the ansible-playbook command was not found. With these changes though, it seems to work as advertised. Thank you for this tutorial and the ansible playbook, this is an excellent solution for a problem I had where I needed a very lightweight camera solution that wouldn't affect the balance on a small portable telescope.

[@phillipstearns7258]

You are doing great work. I noticed you used to be camera shy. But now you are doing awesome. Keep up the great work.

[@JeffGeerling]

Fun fact: In college, when I took a public speaking class, I actually scored off the charts for public speaking anxiety in the test we took at the beginning of the year :D It's definitely a thing where the only way to overcome that anxiety is to do it over and over!

[@vincei4252]

Thankfully I bought my HQ camera 2 months ago and it arrived a couple weeks ago. Haven't unboxed the sucker yet. I do have a variety of really nice lenses to try it with so looking forward to the holiday this week to put it thru its paces.

[@JeffGeerling]

It's a ton of fun! Even though I have three SLRs that beat the usability and image quality, it's more fun to do experiments using a software-controlled camera like the HQ camera! Plus getting 2000+ mm reach out of my longer lenses adapted to C mount makes for some fun experiments!

[@vincei4252]

@@JeffGeerling Indeed. My various Nikon and Sony Slr's are black boxes with annoying UI's. Having something like this to tinker with is always great!

[@princecharmin7208]

Thank you very much! It worked on the first try with a Pi 4 and a night vision camera.

[@dretjedretje]

Jeff, I build it and sofar it is awesome. Next week I will test it. Great sharpness, the ony things I noticed were the 6mm lens that you must unscrew it a little from the mount to get it sharp and the flat cable is far from ideal. But it is in total, every Dutch Euro worth. Thnx a lot for this Christmas present.

[@pctech12345]

The teaser at 11:19 excites me. been looking for a microscope camera. All seem way too expensive for what they are. Telescopes and Microscopes are very much the same interface. If you can, please try it on an AMSCOPE microscope.

[@Dvd0703]

Hello, I have configured the sd card and but in my windows computer I don't see any camera. I try with Raspberry Pi Zero, 3B+ and 4, but none of them work "Device Descriptor Request Failed." That's the error that I'm receiving in my Windows pc

[@buddyshearer4170]

This is awesome! This is perfect for my super secret project I'm working on. Thanks for doing this!

[@alexanderstohr4198]

a super secret spy project maybe. (just hoaxing)

[@jlamoree]

I love that you implemented setup as an Ansible Playbook.

[@JeffGeerling]

I figure I forget enough things in my day as it is. Might as well make the things I build automated and repeatable so my own memory doesn't really matter!

[@technoe02]

This is perfect. Thanks Jeff! I love Ansible and can’t wait to see how you set up the code.

[@strangestuff1213]

Fab, this is really useful & the quality is superb & what a great presentation, glad I subbed & thanks for the playbook.

[@bryanenglish7841]

@4:44 That's always music to my ears!

[@JeffGeerling]

#opensource FTW!

[@tnaxpw]

It looks better than most webcams, but still as a webcam tho. Sometimes it's easier and better to get "older" mirrorless camera with hdmi output

[@p3chv0gel22]

Might work as a camera for my telescope as well... Jeff, you crazy man, you saved me from a lot of trouble

[@AWriterWandering]

I found a more elegant solution to powering the camera off when you're done with it: just add "dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown" to config.txt, then wire a button between GPIO3 and ground. (as a bonus this will also startup the Pi, meaning you can leave it plugged in)

[@RandyTamayo]

i just did this, works perfectly! thanks jeff! i did deviate a bit on the install steps by using brew to install ansible on my mac... and some of the commands i used are probably useless because of that... but i got it to work in the end!

[@morehaed]

Any plans on doing a video using the HD camera module as part of a pi-based home security setup using something like motionEyeOS?

[@wingedrhino33]

What's nice is that this also works with the cheap 10$ Chinese 5mp Pi camera. I did that because even that was waaaaaay better than my laptop cam, and because my 5mp night vision camera makes it easy to make creepy phone calls at night 😂

[@JeffGeerling]

Haha, true. It does work just as well with any camera that works with the Pi's camera connector, including IR cams.

[@wingedrhino33]

@@JeffGeerling it'd be a real shame if you don't shoot a video for your channel with the V2 NoIR camera. It's EXTREMELY creepy, especially with IR lamps providing the lighting 😁 EDIT: Too late for Halloween though...

[@JeffGeerling]

@@wingedrhino33 Maybe I'll set one up to see what Red Shirt Jeff does in the workshop with all those power tools at night!

[@wingedrhino33]

@@JeffGeerling aah perfect!

[@Porl-zb3bm]

@@wingedrhino33 would u be so kind and post a sample clip somewhere with a link here? I'm very interested in an IR version of Jeff's wonderful setup.

[@geophys8318]

I tried on my pi4(installed Feb 2020 ver OS as mentioned) but I couldn’t get it working. Any ideas?

[@montoyatm]

I'm having the same issue but I am using the pi4B

[@zulfphotography]

Great job, kudos cool project but what if I told you I use a Canon 550d /T2i as a webcam and it's cheaper?

[@ErickBuildsStuff]

Hey @Zulf, I have a cannon Powershot SX1 IS. I'm unable to figure out how to use it as webcam. Need some suggestions. Do you use a capture card or new EOS webcam utility? Mine goes into photo transfer mode if I plug in miniUSB with webcam utility. I think 6 months ago watched your video about EOS webcam utility not working. 😎

[@ErickBuildsStuff]

I forgot to tell you, I got 2 broken Canon SX1IS for free and swapped defective parts to make a working camera. 😀

[@JeffGeerling]

I mean, if you already have a DSLR or mirrorless camera, then you can get a decent HDMI capture card and technically it's cheaper (I even have a video on how I stream with both my a6000 and a Nikon D750), but not on the all-in cost (even buying used, it would go past $100). But the quality is oh-so-much better than any webcam you can buy :)

[@zulfphotography]

@@JeffGeerling Yes true however a canon T2i used on ebay is very cheap and also doubles as a decent photos camera. I use the Canon Webcam tool and its actually decent. Im not sure I'm as talented as you to make one like you did. I would give it a go though. I have Retro Pie setup which i don't use much anymore. hmm...

[@zulfphotography]

@@JeffGeerling I use The canon Via USB i do have HDMI cards but i use them with an old Camcorder. They work great too and actually I got a Camcorder 1080p with HDMi out and a cheap HDMI Out Card and that setup was under £70 and in dollars would be close to about $90ish ? but it has zoom and autofocus with tracking. many options out there but yours is COOL as hell. Keep creating

[@richardmaciver8205]

I got it working. Forgot to upgrade. But I also installed yaml and now it works like a dream. Thanks Jeff for your valuable channel and all the work that goes into making these gems/tutorials and GitHub projects. I’m using the 16mm lens and the result is amazing. Thanks again. By the way if anyone knows where I can get my hands on a zero w2 let me know, global shortage.

[@neb_setabed]

I'm really curious to know the latency of it. I've been trying to build a system in my truck which uses an x86 64 bit mini pc as a head unit that has a backup camera, two Blind Spot cameras, and a front bumper camera(amongst others). The issue is this I need a camera that has zero latency which apparently other than HD over analog does not exist.

[@DJDiskmachine]

Wow thanks alot for this awesome video! I'm in dire need of a webcam and was considering my options with building one myself. Finally I can get that Rpi Zero out of its drawer! =)

[@sincerelyyours7538]

Jeff, your timing is excellent as I, too, have found that webcams don't seem to have the value they once had. I'm trying to set up a KZbin channel but have no idea how to capture videos off of various old but still functional cameras ranging from cell phones to digital SLRs and port them to a video editor. Right now the process of connecting them to my computer and stitching the images together into a single seamless video seems like magic to me. Can you explain that process for us in future videos? Thanks! Subbed.

[@someshangle9230]

Hi, I tried this and it worked out for me too. By the way I am not using the sony HQ camera,I am using Raspberry Pi cam 1.3 version.And it worked well for me. Thanks

[@TimBrogdon99]

There is a much easier solution. For some reason its become hard to find in searches, but motioneye is a quick and easy way to create a webcam or full security camera solution. No need to load and then change raspberry pi OS, since it is an OS ready to go. It can also be installed onto pi OS if you want too, but then your back to complex. No where near as complex as what your proposing outside of your script assistance though. Not sure why no one talks about motion eye anymore, its been around for a long time and is really well built.

[@JeffGeerling]

There are a number of things like motion eye, like piwebcam, which instruct you to either drop a full OS image on the Pi or install it manually, but these are IP-based cameras, which are different than standard USB webcams. Additionally, I'm often more leery of installing full OSes that are distributed outside of more official sources, especially on a device that has a camera on it that could be controlled through the software without my knowledge. I would definitely trust some of these projects more than others, but at the core they don't solve the 'plug in the camera, use it in your apps' problem that USB webcams (not IP cameras) solve.

[@zeekjones1]

Autofocus could be added. Anything could be added to an SBC, with the right code.

[@LowDoughTech]

All of the c-mount lenses I own are manual focus. If there are indeed autofocus c-mount lenses, the pi camera module doesn't have an interface to control them.

[@ToolBoys]

Thank you for sharing this great idea. I tried with my PI Zero W2 but the USB device is not recognized on WIN10. (Error when requesting a device description) Is there a chance to make it run?

[@ephraim-edvelasco1294]

I have the same problem. Have any solutions? Thanks!

[@jtdyalEngineer]

Thank You So much for this project 5-Stars!!!! I'm adding the "iUniker 2.8-inch" LCD as a selfie viewfinder and fab'n a combo mount. I'm thinking I'll put a Blue-Snowball mic mount top, or the voice hat microphone if I get ambitious.

[@richardmaciver8205]

Thank you so much for this. On the last step I hit an error on Pi Zero W: ‘no module named yaml’- any ideas? Maybe should be calling pyyaml? I checked your GitHub but saw no such errors reported. Previous to installation, I installed 32bit buster (legacy) using pi imager.

[@tanguero2k7]

I can See this "thing" attached to a telescope :D! Happy New Year!

[@bigtimes]

That's EXACTLY what I'm doing!

[@muhammadzulhelmi8176]

i love how you tell about your project..

[@JMANNN420]

I don't know if anyone has gotten this issue but when I try to do the playbook main.yml command it does not work it says could not create directory. Permission denied

[@AkosLukacs42]

Yesterday: webcams sold out. Today: pi & pi cameras sold out...

[@TheDarkelvenangel]

I'll be interested to see how you got this working with a telescope, I have had a lot of trouble getting any photos of anything but the moon. Great work!

[@PanicStation1337]

It worked, i got all the parts, and the pie only crashed once during the install. It shure wasn't fast but it works greate now. THX a lot

[@mushin111]

Very nice, thanks. If it had auto focus, I'd definitely try this.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

Hey Jeff, great project. I was wondering, will the SD card self destruct by unplugging the "webcam" without powering it off? Also could you please make a video where you use this setup as a usb microscope? Thanks.

[@JeffGeerling]

I have not had an issue with power off and card corruption. It's not really writing anything to the card in OTG mode (though there's a tiny chance it could I guess). If it corrupts, I'd just re-flash and re-install it. You can also set it to not write to the microSD card (RAM only), or log in over SSH (I do this on the W) and run `sudo shutdown now`.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

@@JeffGeerling thanks. Running everything from RAM only seems a good choice.

[@MrDavidBFoster]

Yeah, I have two Pi Zeros working as wireless IP cams. I think camera applications are where they really excel. And if you use v4l2rtspserver on a minimal Raspbian install, you can stream h264 and have better control over image quality with little CPU strain. Not nearly as user-friendly as Motion Eye OS, but last I checked M E was still using MJPEG streaming, which is a bandwidth hog.

[@thecringegolfer]

I sort of made a digital camera with touch screen but it's kind of crude and can only sort of record audio but would have to be edited together as two separate tracks, put together. A mounting plate might make it neat. I didn't know anyone made suck a thing.

[@IreshineSurfInfamous]

Show how to reduce boot time with the PI

[@patrichcerpa2923]

Thanks Jeff. Unfortunately it didn't work for me, the camera is recognized but it crashes when activating it with an app and it disappears. A shame because it's just what I needed (and probably will be for many), and it's one of those projects that if it works will be useful for many years.

[@gunnarorth9815]

Hey Jeff, I followed the tutorial and it works great! The only problem is the video is extremely dark. I’m not sure if anybody else had this problem or has a solution

[@limseehong]

I set it up on my Pi2B with Rpi 8MB Camera Module 2. It didn't work. Ran it on the 4B also didn't work. So I reinstall using the February version of RPI OS and now it worked on my 4GB RPI4B but the video quality is quite laggy on VLC but fine on QuickTime Player. Thanks anyway. Great work there Jeff.

[@StevenCasteelYT]

GoPro Hero 6 works as a great webcam alongside a camlink 4K USB adaptor.

[@nguyentrananhnguyen7900]

it actually look good, just a little bit color correction and turn black level down a little bit and you good to go, noice!

[@JoshuaLessley]

Hey Jeff, thank you for the detailed guide and making this easier! For some reason I could not get this to work, any ideas or trouble shooting tips you could give?

[@shaneplatt3128]

I tried using a Raspberry Pi 4 and the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera. Following the instructions for preparing the raspberry pi, everything worked. Windows recognized it as a Pi Webcam, but it appeared in device manager as a UVC Camera. When I attempted to use it with windows Camera app, it crashed and I received the following error codes 0xA00F4271 (0x8007001F). I tried using it with python openCV it didn't work either. Anyone have any suggestions?

[@trouseify]

Thank you Jeff for this quality video and project.

[@Lena-qg8bd]

That's exactly what i was thinking of doing yesterday. But you did it first so thanks

[@JeffGeerling]

And now you can do it faster than I did :D

[@shia_labeouf]

I actually knew a John Microphone. Nice guy. Great listener.

[@nicotubetube]

This is excellent for my documentation project, thanks so much.

[@beauregardslim1914]

Great job. And thanks for the tip about that mounting plate.