Building your own camera - Stupid or Genius?

- If you're like me, you saw the Pi Foundation's new high-quality

camera

and thought, well, the Pi Foundation introduces versatile and affordable hardware, just like the Raspberry Pi. Surely with a name like that it must be two things; A

camera

and high quality. But what do the words mean? Clearly, this isn't a camera until you build it. And by quality, do you mean that it never breaks? Or do they mean it takes good pictures? Can this really be better than the other options out there? Can our sponsor, Ridge Wallet, really redefine the wallet with its compact frame and RFID blocking plates?

Well, they sure want to do it. See how they can keep

your

wallet fat and use our offer code, Linus, to save 10% and get free worldwide shipping. (upbeat music) High-quality cameras, the Pi Foundation's third-generation camera module. It's compatible with all Raspi except the first Pi zeros, and like the v1 and v2, connects to

your

Raspberry Pi with a flat cable via its Mipi CSI serial two interface. Now, as you'd expect from a Pi product, the module has surprisingly competent specs, at least on paper, including Sony's ImX 477 sensor, which is similar to what you'd find on a GoPro or DJI Mavic, a tripod mount, and a built-in metal lens mount that feels, well, high-quality.

As expected, it is reasonably priced at just $50. Although if you take into account everything else you're going to need, a Raspi, an SD card and a lens, it costs more between $100 and $200. By the way, it's not strictly necessary, but for extra points, we also 3D printed a case for ours that protects it from incidental static discharge and shock. And it allows us to use it, like a point and shoot camera. So our setup cost about $185. Now, you obviously won't get the water resistance or image stabilization that you would find on a GoPro, but for the price, it still looks pretty good.

This sensor captures 12.33 megapixel photos in JPEG, PNG and even RAW, and we can even record videos up to 1080p 50 fps H.264. Supports changing ISO, shutter speed and white balance. You know all the usual controls of the camera and thanks to its C-mount lens flange. Virtually any lens, from very cheap to very expensive, can be adapted with the right adapter. You can even do "in-camera" image processing, such as balancing colors or adding filters, such as an oil painting or watercolor effect to your image. If you're feeling adventurous, you can add some AI and get notified when your neighbor takes your parking spot with basic image recognition.

You can create your own smart door with Alexa integration or you can have a highly customizable security camera with features that match or even surpass some of the high-end systems out there. Perhaps best of all, it's also a complete computer, with a built-in browser, so you can visit LTTSTORE.com. But there is a problem. To explain it, let's talk about semantics. The Raspberry Pi Foundation calls it a camera module in its documentation, but some other Mipi camera manufacturers try to distinguish between a sensor module, which contains no ISP or built-in image signal processor, meaning the connected computer has to do all noise removal work. and analyze the raw data from the sensor, and a camera module that contains an ISP and sends a pre-processed image to the host computer, which in many cases would also be a Raspi or similar.

Now a camera module costs more, but that extra hardware can do more advanced processing compared to the Raspberry Pi's built-in ISP, or it can free up processing resources that can be dedicated to things like scene detection and facial recognition. It can also act as a sort of translation layer that simplifies updates, by allowing the host system - which, remember, may not necessarily be a Raspberry Pi - to reuse existing drivers and software, rather than requiring new ones to be written. new ones whenever you want. connect a new sensor. So, I got you. By some definitions, this is a sensor module, which has not yet received much software support.

Which means there are only a few GUIs that work with it, and even those have their limits. The Pi Camera app, for example, offers an easy-to-use interface and supports photos and videos, but it hasn't been updated in nearly five years, aside from a bug fix in January, and may never be updated. to fully support new modules, full resolution and features. That means that to unlock its full potential, you'll need to have the knowledge and patience to adjust parameters on the command line. Now, it's not that difficult and the guide provided has all the commands listed for easy reference with a brief summary of each function, but it's very clear that if your goal is to quickly capture the moment, this is not the place. boss.

Which doesn't mean we didn't try. Armed with our high-quality 3D printed camera and a 3D printed tripod, Brandon went on a photography expedition and is back to tell you about his findings. - Let me start by saying that this camera is a great idea. It's small, cheap and like all Pi products, your imagination is the limit for its use. Now I took the camera out for about an hour and while it was a fun new experience, overall I'm disappointed with the result. In my testing, I took the Raspi camera out into the world with a 4 pixel for comparison.

I did my best to match the Raspi camera composition on pixel 4 as they were very different fields of view. Setting up our Raspi camera was a very difficult experience to use and we had to use the command line for all the actual camera functions. So I definitely would have preferred to have a dedicated shutter button. Usability aside, how does it compare to something like the Pixel 4? Well, that's where things get worse for the Raspi camera. Let's start with the positive. When it comes to photography, the Raspi camera does an above-average job, with overall sharpness and detail.

Thanks to the Sony ImX 477 sensor. Unfortunately, compared to the 4 pixel stills, which I even zoomed to to better adapt the field of view between the cameras, Raspi has some processing problems. In all the photos I took, there is a light magenta tint to the photos. It does a good job of isolating subjects with a shallow depth of field, but especially since these C-mount lenses are nothing special in terms of optics, the 4-pixel portrait mode produces, as it were, nicer bokeh. Unfortunately, when it comes to video, the story is similar. The video is soft and lacks overall dynamic range.

Details can be reasonably improved with higher quality lenses, but the sensor with this current processing feels like a video phone from about four years ago. It really shows that all the years of research and development that Google and Apple have put into image processing make a difference in a great result when working with limited hardware. I'm sure the right engineers working on processing this sensor module could use it for content creation, but for now, it's best used for many other applications you'd use a camera for in general. - Well, that's a bummer. But realistically, I didn't expect a $50 module to replace a purpose-built camera anyway.

So let's talk about what it's actually for. In practical terms, if I wanted a solution to monitor my 3D printer farm or lab experiment, the usability shortcomings here are less significant and it lives up to its name quite well, offering high quality, especially for the cost. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has also committed to producing these items until at least 2026. So unlike other sensor modules, I can count on future availability if I need more. So the reason it exists coincides perfectly with the Raspberry Pi Foundation's overall goal of putting the power of computing and digital creation into the hands of people around the world.

It may not be the best camera in an Apple to Apple comparison, with a phone for example, but it is a great camera for experiments, education and interesting projects that can benefit from high quality, but don't need the best. quality. In conclusion, then, it's not

stupid

to build your own camera, but, if you have a somewhat recent phone, you'll probably want to stick with that. Thanks to iFixit for sponsoring today's video. iFixit wants to make sure you have the right bit for the job and with iFixit you can take apart almost all of your electronics depending on the kit you choose.

The Mako has its little 64 Bits. The Mahi has bigger bits and 48 of them. The Manta has all the bits at a whopping 112 and each kit includes one of iFixit's famous rotary knurled screwdrivers. iFixit kits are contained in a magnetic enclosed case and all tools are held together with laser cut foam for your convenience. Check it out at iFixit.com/Linus. We'll have it linked below. If you enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy our cheap home security cameras video we did a while back when I was really upset about the subscription fees for affordable consumer cameras.

It was also based on Raspberry Pi. We'll take a look.