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There is a wide range of cameras for Raspberry Pi. Along with it there are price differences, although usually small, because purchasing a RPi camera itself isn’t an astronomical cost at all. There’s also a crazy ton of various manufacturers. Do not sink in indecision – here are some proposals worth considering.
Which camera for Raspberry Pi?
For a long time, when people talked about a camera for Raspberry Pi, they usually thought of Raspberry Pi Camera v1-OV5647 or Raspberry Pi Camera v2-IMX219. With the release of the next generation HD Raspberry Pi Camera-IMX477, users have more choices. Much depends on where and why we will be using our new hardware. We always care about good quality images and fast ripping to other media, this is as universal as it is obvious. In Botland you will also find infrared cameras, which can be used even in very dark rooms and at night. No less important is quick installation, which is ensured by mounting holes and attached tapes.
A must-have option. Original Raspberry Pi cameras
Official and manufactured by Raspberry Pi only. It’s this little board camera and its little sister – complete with an accessible official guide, so far in English – that are the most popular imaging modules.
The Raspberry Pi HD v2 8MPx camera is the second version of the popular camera that plugs into the Raspberry Pi minicomputer’s 2, 3 and 4 B+ connector. Its parameters are pretty good – it has 8 Mpx sensor and support for HD 1080p, 720p and 640 x 480p. It can take photos in a really satisfactory quality of 3280 x 2464 px. Setup is done in a simple and user-friendly way. Also take a look at the newer version of the Raspberry Pi HQ IMX477R 12.3MPx camera that we enjoyed last spring. Interestingly for the camera in the earlier version there are two alternatives: a daytime model and an IR night model. And in IMX477R the parameters have been significantly improved – full specification on the product page.
(newest 2020 model)
Cheap option. OdSeven Camera HD OV5647 5 Mpx
That’s an honest description. No need to hide behind phrases like cost-friendly or budget one – even Camera HD OV5647 is just a cheap one. An absolute starting point if we want to try out the camera functionality on the Raspberry Pi at all. Interestingly, despite its really low price, its quality won’t put us off the idea of continuing to use cameras, as the device has a 5 Mpx sensor and supports 1080 px HD mode. Raspberry Pi has hardware support for the OdSeven camera, so we won’t consume a single unit of the Raspberry’s CPU processing power. The viewing angle is 72.4° and the dimensions of the device are very handy at just 25 x 24 mm. Included, of course, is a ribbon to connect to the Raspberry Pi. We don’t have much more to add – just a solid option to start with.
Waveshare products have every right to be on today’s list – they have been among the best fruits of display technology in Botland’s lineup for many years. There’s another reason, too. It’s because of wide-angle cameras, which deserve overall attention as an entire hardware family. On board of presented model is a 1/4 ” CCD sensor with 5 Mpx resolution supporting 1080p HD mode. Due to special lens the viewing angle of this camera is almost semicircular – diagonal viewing angle 160°, horizontal viewing angle 120°.
Note: you will need a suitable cable to work with Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W and Zero WH.
RPi cameras from other manufacturers
In addition to the official Raspberry Pi cameras, lenses, and other accessories listed, as well as the OdSeven budget camera and Arducam wide-angle camera, it’s also worth considering offerings from other companies. These include, most notably:
- Adafruit,
- DFRobot,
- Gravlaser,
- Pi Supply,
- PiHut (Mann Enterprises LTD),
- SB Components,
- Seeedstudio,
- Teko.
