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New product: Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera on sale now at $50

We’re pleased to announce a new member of the Raspberry Pi camera family: the 12.3-megapixel High Quality Camera, available today for just $50, alongside a range of interchangeable lenses starting at $25.

It’s really rather good, as you can see from this shot of Cambridge’s finest bit of perpendicular architecture.

At 69 years, King’s College Chapel took only slightly longer to finish than the High Quality Camera.

And this similarly pleasing bit of chip architecture.

Ready for your closeup.

Raspberry Pi and the camera community

There has always been a big overlap between Raspberry Pi hackers and camera hackers. Even back in 2012, people (okay, substantially Dave Hunt) were finding interesting ways to squeeze more functionality out of DSLR cameras using their Raspberry Pi computers.

Dave’s water droplet photography. Still, beautiful.

The OG Raspberry Pi camera module

In 2013, we launched our first camera board, built around the OmniVision OV5647 5‑megapixel sensor, followed rapidly by the original Pi NoIR board, with infrared sensitivity and a little magic square of blue plastic. Before long, people were attaching them to telescopes and using them to monitor plant health from drones (using the aforementioned little square of plastic).

We like the Moon.

Sadly, OV5647 went end-of-life in 2015, and the 5-megapixel camera has the distinction of being one of only three products (along with the original Raspberry Pi 1 and the official WiFi dongle) that we’ve ever discontinued. Its replacement, built around the 8-megapixel Sony IMX219 sensor, launched in April 2016; it has found a home in all sorts of cool projects, from line-followers to cucumber sorters, ever since. Going through our sales figures while writing this post, we were amazed to discover we’ve sold over 1.7 million of these to date.

The limitations of fixed-focus

Versatile though they are, there are limitations to mobile phone-type fixed-focus modules. The sensors themselves are relatively small, which translates into a lower signal-to-noise ratio and poorer low-light performance; and of course there is no option to replace the lens assembly with a more expensive one, or one with different optical properties. These are the shortcomings that the High Quality Camera is designed to address.

: Raspberry Pi 4, taken with Camera Module v2

: Raspberry Pi 4, taken with High Quality Camera

Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera

Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera, without a lens attached

Features include:

12.3 megapixel Sony IMX477 sensor
1.55μm × 1.55μm pixel size – double the pixel area of IMX219
Back-illuminated sensor architecture for improved sensitivity
Support for off-the-shelf C- and CS-mount lenses
Integrated back-focus adjustment ring and tripod mount

We expect that over time people will use quite a wide variety of lenses, but for starters our Approved Resellers will be offering a couple of options: a 6 mm CS‑mount lens at $25, and a very shiny 16 mm C-mount lens priced at $50.

Our launch-day lens selection.

Read all about it

Also out today is our new Official Raspberry Pi Camera Guide, covering both the familiar Raspberry Pi Camera Module and the new Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera.

We’ll never not be in love with Jack’s amazing design work.

Our new guide, published by Raspberry Pi Press, walks you through setting up and using your camera with your Raspberry Pi computer. You’ll also learn how to use filters and effects to enhance your photos and videos, and how to set up creative projects such as stop-motion animation stations, wildlife cameras, smart doorbells, and much more.

Aardman ain’t got nothing on you.

You can purchase the book in print today from the Raspberry Pi Press store for £10, or download the PDF for free from The MagPi magazine website.

Credits

As with every product we build, the High Quality Camera has taught us interesting new things, in this case about producing precision-machined aluminium components at scale (and to think we thought injection moulding was hard!). Getting this right has been something of a labour of love for me over the past three years, designing the hardware and getting it to production. Naush Patuck tuned the VideoCore IV ISP for this sensor; David Plowman helped with lens evaluation; Phil King produced the book; Austin Su provided manufacturing support.

We’d like to acknowledge Phil Holden at Sony in San Jose, the manufacturing team at Sony UK Tec in Pencoed for their camera test and assembly expertise, and Shenzhen O-HN Optoelectronic for solving our precision engineering challenges.

FAQS

Which Raspberry Pi models support the High Quality Camera?

The High Quality Camera is compatible with almost all Raspberry Pi models, from the original Raspberry Pi 1 Model B onward. Some very early Raspberry Pi Zero boards from the start of 2016 lack a camera connector, and other Zero users will need the same adapter FPC that is used with Camera Module v2.

What about Camera Module v2?

The regular and infrared versions of Camera Module v2 will still be available. The High Quality Camera does not supersede it. Instead, it provides a different tradeoff between price, performance, and size.

What lenses can I use with the High Quality Camera?

You can use C- and CS-mount lenses out of the box (C-mount lenses use the included C-CS adapter). Third-party adapters are available from a wide variety of lens standards to CS-mount, so it is possible to connect any lens that meets the back‑focus requirements.

We’re looking forward to seeing the oldest and/or weirdest lenses anyone can get working, but here’s one for starters, courtesy of Fiacre.

Do not try this at home. Or do: fine either way.

175 comments

Congrats on finally bringing it to the market! Let’s see what the amazing Raspberry Pi community will come up with.

Great! I love the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. I’m about to make an inspection camera for inspecting solder quality of our PCBs. One question – what is the highest resolution at which it can record at 30 or 24 fps? And can it preview (i.e. in overlay mode – display camera output to display with raspivid) in 4k?

1080 is the top resolution as that is the limit of the H264 encoder. You cannot preview at 4k at a viewable frame rate, that is beyond the capabilities of the camera interface.

Sorry, that should read 1920×1080

Given that the Raspi4 supports H.265, why didn’t you guys support that on this board so that higher quality and resolutions become possible? Sounds like a nobrainer

It would be a no-brainer if the Pi4 had a HEVC ENCODER. It doesn’t, it just has a decoder.
We are not that dumb.

In the past I’ve tried recording 1080p video from USB webcam with Pi4, but it failed. Pi4 was unable to encode video stream for 30 fps with any compression method, while the raw data stream was too much to save it real time on MicroSD card or pendrive connected to USB port. Can Pi4 record 4k/30p (without preview) using the new camera?

Great! Been waiting so long …

Now this changes the game in machine vision and AI at the edge!

Very cool!

Now how can you make a USB webcam out of a Pi Zero?

People have got this working in the past, https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=148361#p1427582

But it’s all based on the OTG gadget driver which is still very ‘new’ and changes a lot… So it looks like YMMV

Indeed, someone was contacting me about that thread just this weekend trying to get uvc-gadget working on the Pi-zero. There’s some work to do I think … but it would certainly be interesting to get uvc-gadget working properly for both the Zero and Pi4.

I recently got that going on a zero, as webcams aren’t/weren’t really available and my laptop has a nostrilcam (bottom left of screen). Found that it was quite flaky if the dwc2 overlay was added at boot time, but solid if it was dynamically added post-boot.
No problems getting zoom/skype/MSCamera/…, but Cheese wasn’t keen… Makes a real difference being able to plonk my jury-rigged webcam on top of the TV and HDMI out to the TV to catch up with friends…

Do you think you could post your working OS image for the zero? I have been trying to do this myself from the above resources but haven’t been able to get it working,

It would be great if you could share some details on how you made that work – it seems many people are struggling with that. Thanks so much!
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=148361

Will there be a NoIR version?

The IR filter is usually added to the lenses that came attached to the v1 and v2 pi cameras. So the NoIR versions have a camera lens without the IR filter. This module is sensor only and doesn’t come with a lens so there is no point of an NoIR version. You can buy any off-the-shelf C or CS mount lenses that are compatible to your needs.

Are you sure that IR filter was added to the lens, rather than the sensor? In any case, it does not tell whether this new chip has the filter or not.

Also, thank you! I’ve been waiting for higher quality chip for a long time!

The High Quality Camera does have an IR filter – you can find more detailed specifications at https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera/, with a link to more still in the product brief and other documents.

As James Hughes has commented below, if you’re an adventurous type who laughs in the face of a voided warranty, you can carry out a thrillingly irreversible procedure that will void yours by removing the IR filter :)

I, too, would be interested in NoIR version. Are there any plans for such a variant?

No, there is no NoIR version, but you can remove the IR filter yourself. Does void the warranty though. https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/camera/hqcam_filter_removal.md

Seems like it would be a good project to come up with a flippable IR filter which can we wired up to the PI which can be dropped in front of a lens attached to the new camera sensor module? Low enough illumination in blue light -> flip IR filter off.

I hadn’t realized that the IMX477 has an ambient light sensor on it as well as per the sensor datasheet. Can we get access to that output?
Also, the sensor appears to support DOL-HDR at lower framerates. Are we able to get that output, since it doesn’t appear to require a higher bandwidth interface?
https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products/common/pdf/IMX477-AACK_Flyer.pdf

Looks great. What are the 35mm focal length equivalents and aperture size ranges of the 6mm and 16mm lenses? Thanks

By my calculation, and approximate, 34mm and 91 mm respectively.

I’ll be curious what Thingiverse camera boxes eventually get invented to house the above PCB, a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, and some 18650 batteries which can supply it power. An integrated camera flash and LCD display with some buttons would also be nice.

You asked this question for me, I hope that this market hole will be filled. I wasted no time in ordering this camera this morning, my first project will be on the telescope. But I hope to have some fun refining a digital camera for general use.
The Pi world really is the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks Pi Team.

How did it work with your scope? what are you using for frame capture? Thanks!

Search YouTube for “BeccaCam” for an interesting, if amateurish, first hack at a camera case for a Pi and the HQ Camera. I’m thinking a better design won’t be far off.

Too late! Already sold out at Pi hut. The last 12 went while I was filling in my delivery details… :-(

I can still see them on the Pimoroni site.

Thanks for the tip, Alex – I managed to bag one! Happy now! :-)
It will be interesting to see how well it works as a super-cheap telescope sensor.

Hey Laurence. I’m intending to do the same thing. I’m curious about using it in a guide-scope, at least. If I remove the IR filter, I might try it on the main scope also. I’m also speculating about adding a cooler to it…

I was wondering about cooling as well. Is the back side of the PCB really nice and empty as the renderings suggest? This would be awesome for attaching a cooler the get noise levels further down!

What’s the slowest exposure you can do? I’m thinking of sticking a telescope to it…

About 200 seconds – should be capable of much longer exposures than our other cameras.

What is the size of the sensor?
Why do the 2 lenses sold annouce a resolution in MegaPixels, this is must unusual in photography. Normally the resolution depends on the sensor, not on the lens. Of course the latter can be more or less sharp, but this is measured in lines per mm or inch, not in MP. Does it mean that the lenses do not cover the whole size of the sensor? The 6mm lens is said to have a resolution of only 3MP. What is the point seling it for a 12MP camera? I am missing something. Thanks in advance to provide some explanations. Otherwise it seems a great product opening new perspectives for the already very versatile Pi.

Just wanted to order as well and saw these specs for the lenses. Same question arose, if with these thew whole sensors cant be used?

Here’s what we are saying about the lense

“When using a low cost starter lens like the 3MP lens on the HQ camera you will effectively have the equivalent of a perfect 3MP image even though the HQ Camera sensor itself is 12.3MP and the image file can be any size up to a 12.3MP image. Nonetheless the focus is adjustable so the image quality is still going to be much better than the fixed focus V2 camera for close up shots. There are other factors too such as the dynamic range and low light sensitivity that make pictures far higher quality than the V2.

Similarly when using a 10MP lens you will effectively have a 10MP image but the image quality is not going to be very noticeable difference when compared to a 12MP lens. “

James, I’m still confused. I’m a hobbiest photographer and astrophotography. I don’t understand how a lens can limit the resolution of a camera, unless there’s severe vignetting of the image circle (i.e. the lens hardware physically blocks some of the sensor or puts it in “shadow”). Can you clarify?

LPI (Lines per Inch) will be the better word than MegaPixels.

Lenses have a practical limit of the resolution. You will not get much better pictures with a chip that has a higher resultion than the lens. It may get worse, if you have to deal with low light conditions, because huge pixels can collect more light.

I do computer vision but I’m not a photographer.
Another take on resolution is this: Suppose you have two dots that are almost touching. With a sub-optimal lens those dots will merge to become one blob. No amount of camera sensor resolution will fix that,
3drocketsurgery.com

As an astrophotographer, you should realize that a larger aperture lens equates to a higher resolving power (as in more detail).

http://labman.phys.utk.edu/phys222core/modules/m9/resolving_power.htm

It’s got to do with the lenses’ Modulation Transfer Function. (see https://www.edmundoptics.com.au/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/introduction-to-modulation-transfer-function/ ) .
Basically, lens don’t actually transfer the contrast of an image perfectly. There is a limitation to a particular sharpness due to this, and it results in a natural resolution limitation (usually in lines). Selling these lenses by megapixel like this makes it easy to relate for those who don’t understand how the MTF of an optics system limits resolution.
I’ve linked that article there because it seems like it could help you (as it did me). I’m a Comp. Eng, so for me it is relatable to the impulse response of a linear system (eg, an electric circuit acting as a filter) — just in the spatial domain, rather than the usual time domain, and across two such dimensions. In this sense the resolution is relatable to the rise / fall times. The maximum gradient over time/space that the data can follow, even if the real world is sharper (ie, may have nearly infinitely steeper gradient).
I hope this helps…

IMX477 is a 1/2.3-inch format sensor (7.8mm diagonal).

finally, replaceable lenses and a good sensor.
but the big question is the GPU !! it is not enough even for good shooting with v2 camera. I’m not sure how far we can get out of this new camera considering the limited bandwidth because of CSI 2-lanes

It’s the same ISP (not GPU), so if that isn’t good enough you need to find a different base product i.e. Not Raspberry Pi as the camera connector is limited to 2 lanes (except the Compute module where you can have 4)

Clear, thank you.
It seems we are not going to have enhancement in the current ISP any time soon.

The ISP is built in to the SoC, so that would need to change…so no in answer to your question.

If the Compute Module has 4 lanes, would it be possible to get better performance with the new camera? Or is this just theoretical?

I wonder how easy it would be to hook it up to a telescope.
C-mount to 1.25″ adapters exist so that shouldn’t be a problem, but will the sensor sit at a correct distance for the image to be in focus?

By “correct distance” do you mean that you expect the camera to be outside the range afforded by the existing viewfinder adjustment?
(6cm on my scope)

Is this Raspberry Pi Camera Module compatible with Jetson Nano as Raspberry Pi camera v2?

Not something we have ever tried or are likely to try. Try asking the Jetson people, but right now, I reckon no.

I suspect it will be compatible at a hardware level, but will require someone to do some driver work to get it working.

Is there a monochrome version of the IMX477? I’m more than willing to try my hand at removing the IR filter, but can the bayer filter be removed too? I’ve seen it done to DSLRs. It’s not pretty to watch, but effective.

Great! What is the maximum magnification possible with both standard lenses 1:1 or even higher?

Cool product! The Raspberry Pi still can only capture video at 1080p, right? How does the sensor handle binning in this case? It should make sense to combine 2×2 sensor elements into a binned pixel.

I think a global shutter sensor would have been better

I think one that could make sandwiches would be better too. But actually, this one has a greater market penetration than a low resolution global shutter sandwich maker. So it’s better.

Why is that when we release things , all people want to comment about is what they think should have been released instead. What’s wrong with some sort of appreciation for what we HAVE done? This camera took years to get released, the engineers deserve some of acknowledgement for their efforts.

“This camera took years to get released, the engineers deserve some of acknowledgement for their efforts.”
Sure they do. But engineers usually also want to hear feedback about other features and capabilities their users would be interested in, don’t they? I know I do. And I also know that I too would be interested in a global-shutter camera for the Pi. Is that so terrible?

Dear James,

Many people use RPI + camera for Robotics, and it is important to have a global shutter to avoid motion blur. Otherwise, for example with the existing camera, your robot has to be at low speeds. For example, if you wanted to implement AprilTag based marker detection, you would have to stay at speeds < 0.25 m/s.

There are not that many options for small global speed cameras for robotics, and they are very expensive, due to low demand. It would be awesome if RPI comes up with a camera that solves this problem.

Best Regards,
Can Altineller

*I* think this sensor is pretty cool and I’ll probably end up with several of them. Kudos on the release of it. :)

James Hughes, hi mate it’s the same when anyone brings out something new. You have done a great job and I for one appreciate this new product (although a unicorn horn mount would have been good 8-) As soon as they come in stock I will be ordering one, many thanks. Tony

Global shutter sensors are very expensive. IMX477 is a mass market sensor (a slight variant is used in certain cellphones), so the price is low.

I have an old Pentax K Slide converter, there’s bound to be a lens adapter for that?

I have no personal experience with this adapter, but it should do what you’re looking for. Search for “FotodioX Pentax K Pro Lens Adapter for C-Mount Cameras”, it seems to be available from a few different vendors. I have a 40mm K-mount / KAF pancake lens that I’d be interested in using as a back-yard cam (though it’s a little unclear to me how exposure would be handled; aperture priority?).

I suspect while you can probably find a lens adapter you may struggle with crop factor. Presumably the slide converter is designed for a full 35mm film frame and as such a camera with a small sensor will only capture a small part of the slide.

Great! What kind of FPS should we expect from this sensor? e.g. 1080@30Hz? @60Hz?

Still uses the same CSI-2 2 lane interface (all we have available on the Pi range) and the same H264 encoder, so fps limits are the same as before.

Wait, the V2 could be pushed to 200 Hz apparently (with fixed exposure) whereas the HQ doesn’t seem to be supported over 120 Hz. Are there possible developments in that direction (similar fixed exposure mode, 8×8 binning mode…)?

Hi! Interesting product :)
For those who are looking for the video mode supported, it is worth reading the updated documentation here https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/raspbian/applications/camera.md especially this table:
Mode Size Aspect Ratio Frame rates FOV Binning
0 automatic selection
1 1920×1080 16:9 0.1-30fps Partial 2×2
2 2028×1520 4:3 0.1-50fps Full 2×2
3 4056×3040 4:3 0.005-10fps Full None
4 1012×760 4:3 50.1-120fps Full 4×4
Also some additional details are also here https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/camera/README.md

So nice ! Congratulations to the Raspberry Pi Fundation and Trading ! And welcome to this new member in the Pi family ;)
I am particularly impressed since I didn’t except anything to be released within this context we’re all know.

So, right now, I need to get something to drill my Pi Zero case ^^

Some sources (retailers) are saying this boosts the recording resolution to 4K … although James’ reply above seems to contradict that? What is the max video resolution of the new camera? Which Pi models support the top video resolution? Lastly, and most critically, 1920×1080 was only possible with the older camera through cropping of the image from the sensor due to bandwidth limitations. Is the same true for the new camera?

It can record still frames in 4k resolution, but the Pi doesn’t have a 4k video encoder. Past evidence suggests that resellers don’t always understand everything about what they sell.

The VC6 H264 encoder is the same as the V4, so the max. resolution that can support is 1920×1080. With overclocking you could just about get p60 at that resolution. We still need to get the data from the camera but with 12MP we actually get a larger FOV than with 8MP, it uses a 2×2 bin mode and crops slightly, but only top and bottom to get the correct aspect ratio, so we have full width of the sensor atr 2028, scaled down in the ISP to get to 1920.

Thanks James. Happy to hear that 1920×1080 uses the full sensor width. Especially since that would have negated the benefits of wider lenses.

It’ll be really fun to test this one.
Amazing timing for my home-built photo booth for my upcoming wedding too, thanks ;)

Great news!

Well this finally adds some punch to the camera part. Especially the longer exposure times were something I was wishing for as well as the standard mount so you could hook up any lens.
What would still have been cool tough is a higher speed interface, but I understand this is not easily possible due to compatibility issues.
Just treat Raspberry as what it is … a plant :). Give it some time and love and it will grow.

We are limited by the camera connector on the Pi itself. It only exposes 2 CSI-2 lanes, which limits the speed. Of course, for video we are also limited by the capabilities of the H264 encoder (1920x1080p60 when overclocked). Changing the connector breaks backwards compatibility, changing the encoder means a new SoC!

Well done all glad to see this Camera come to Market. The image quality looks fantastic!.

Very nice. IMX477 is a good sensor (I’m guessing you can get them a little cheaper than the slightly-better IMX577).
One small missed opportunity here. If you had put an exposed thermal pad on the back side of the board (with thermal vias connecting to the sensor ground solder pads), then users could have put a TE cooler on the back for astrophotograpy. As dark current doubles every 6°C or so, even modest cooling makes a difference for long exposure, low-light applications.

The sensor is capable of HDR shots and video capture (SME-HDR and DOL-HDR). Is this supported by hqcam?

I’d also like to know answer to this question :)

Something I’d been thinking about kludging together for a long time. With the built in CS mount and CS to C adapter…things can get interesting.

I have an old 16mm cine camera with a bunch of C-mount lenses, ranging from 15mm to 102mm, including a 63mm macro-focusing lens.

Going over to my old 35mm gear, one of my lenses is a 600mm catadioptric. Just need to source a CS to OM adapter….

Now all we need is a 3D printed mount for our 3D printers! Looking forward to a sharp image of what I am printing! V2 is not that great – especially focus. My Pi is attached to the Prusa MK3S frame.

All sold out :(
I wonder when these will be more freely stocked?

We’ll have some tens of thousands more coming onto the market in the next couple of weeks. (We weren’t necessarily expecting to sell through on the first day – these have been popular!)

Nice product :D
Is there a possibility to push the framerate by reducing the resolution only in one dimension? This could result in a very fast line scan camera for example.

New camera… mechanical drawing needs checking. Vertical hole spacing and height of lens Centerline above lowest plane of tripod attachment. Also orphaned dimension lines? Expecting my mount and lens tomorrow.

Niiiiice! I have been printing little M12 adapters and tearing the lenses off of Pi-cam 2.1s with somewhat dodgy results in order to get different focal lengths. This looks worlds better.

any guesses what the impact will be for the Google AIY Vision Kit?

So it looks like we have driver support for this in DetphAI.
So we could make a DepthAI variant that works with this camera. Our current model uses a 12MP module as well (IMX378) but w/out swappable lenses (https://shop.luxonis.com/products/bw1093)

Would anyone be interested in such a thing w/ this pi camera? It would allow ~26FPS object detection and 4K h.265 (or h.264 encoding) in parallel w/ USB3 output.

Thoughts?

Thumbs up! I haven’t known about your project, it looks incredibly cool! I’d be interested in two areas – first, as a smart security camera, basically marking a moment worth recording (logging a trespassing) and second – to record in full 4k. I want to record 4k video using some open platform, unfortunately RPI 4 has the same encoder in videocore as the previous models of Pi.
Counting cars on a highway is the last of my thoughts…

I’ve been searching for possibilities to build my own camera platform to power my own computational photograph experiments. The new camera module looks so far the closest to my dreams. It would be nicer to have a much larger sensor to make it outstanding from other similar platforms like phones.

I have a Kiev 88CM
Will this, or anything similar fit a Pentacon Six mount?
I’m desperate for an inexpensive digital back!

I also have a Kiev. I did not think a lens adapter will do much good. It might be possible to get this camera board and a pi into a back, but you’d likely have to tear it up in the process. If you can get the sensor about wear the focal plane would be, it should work. Having such a large lens covering such a tiny sensor will make for very long effective focal lengths. The math of all that is not my forte. But your comment has given me food for thought.

Try to finds out how close to the lens (6mm) and how far the object will still be clear.
Back focus: Adjustable (12.5 mm–22.4 mm) doesn’t tell me anything….

This tutorial by Losant might be of value to your readers. There are two other tutorials as well for your readers working with your camera for IoT solutions.

Awesome! Would keen to try it for some Astroimaging work. Need to cool down the senor temp to upto -35-40 degrees. It will be a perfect astrocam

Does this support any type of auto-focus or is it fully manual focused?

Is this also using this raspicam python library? Please tell me that we will be able to set exposure, gain without having a backflip, only with a single line of code. Then I can consider purchasing one…

Is it possible to get this in India?

A larger sensor, higher resolution, interchangeable-lens camera is something I’ve wanted for my Pi boards for a long time, and it’s finally here! Icing on the cake is that it’s less expensive than I expected (although a CS lens to really deliver 12 MP is something else again). Very much looking forward to playing with this one. Thank you!

Can this camera take pictures out of the box, or does it require a separate lens?

You will need to buy a lens as well.

Thanks James, I thought that might be the answer. Just received my camera today, I will be trying to find a lens.

very cool! :)
why does the 6mm lens say 3mp and the 16mm lens say 10mp though? what do the lenses have to do with megapixels? is the optics kind of blurry so that you can make use of the full sensor resolution? :)

The lenses have a resolution limit. The question has already been asked and James has answered above nearer to the start of this comment thread.

thanks! i missed that.
(and of course i meant “can’t make use of” in my original post)

I have a “Fujinon YV2.2×1.4A-SA2 1.4-3.1mm Fish-Eye Varifocal CS Lens” with auto-exposure connection. I don’t suppose there is any way to power/control that connector with this new camera? Without a signal, the iris remains closed.

If your lens is anything like the CS mount lenses I have with a DC auto Iris connector (square, 4 pins) then you can open the Iris with about 3 V across two of the pins. Search the RPi forums for DC auto Iris to see what I did. You can buy the 4 pin socket connector on eBay.

Thanks for the tip! I’ll respond to you on your forum post :)

Hello there!, home-built slide scanner. This module connected to high quality lens would be a perfect self contained scanning station.

Hi, great news :-)
With a Python program, can we control
– aperture,
– exposure time(how many seconds),
– autofocus ?
There are some camera API?
Thanks!

Why does the lens mount and the PCB of this camera say “2018”?

Because that is when they were first developed. This product has taken a LONG time to get good enough to release, mainly the lens holder; finding a manufacturer who could make to the requisite standard was difficult.

It seems like only yesterday when I watched this ancient thing known as “television”, which was only 320×240 resolution (where I lived). Nobody complained about it at the time. Shows like the Simpsons were very funny, and enjoyable even at that resolution. Surely 1920×1080 is enough to likewise make enjoyable content, people. My current laptop screen is in the same 1080p, so I don’t mind that this new product nicely matches that. Kudos to the Raspberry Pi engineers, who make deeply sane, sensible, and refreshingly affordable hardware.
Finally, a hardware maker who isn’t always looking to push the envelope with bumped-up specs that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, and then it isn’t Open-Source friendly.

Can i got step 3D cad?

Is there image stabilization software available to achieve something as good as Gopro 8 Hypersmooth?

feeling like trying that 70-200 setup lol

Well done as always another fantastic product.
My DSLR camera only has 10 megapixel and cost well over £600 when first purchased. Amazing price with so many possibilities.

I did found this tutorial: https://ubuntu.com/blog/how-to-stream-video-with-raspberry-pi-hq-camera-on-ubuntu-core

It looks like a marvellous piece of hardware for only $50 for a telescope. You may reduce the noise in the ccd-chip by placing a peltier-element on the backside of the print with proper isolation. It will beat any cooled ccd-camera’s on the market for amateur astronomers.

Hello, does this camera support 4-lane CSI connection with some non-RPI board (e.g. Jetson Nano)?

No.

https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294910344+4294819333&NTK=all&page=3&cat=Boards/Projects-:-MicroCenter

Dang! Already sold out at Micro Center and it is “in store” only!

Very good! Very nice! High qualty! Forever Raspberry Pi!

What are the optics (datasheets) or parameters of the
High Quality Camera lenses, like:
Primary Magnification PMAG (range)
Horizontal Field of View (range)
Working Distance (mm)
Distortion (%)
Resolution (lp/mm)
…

i bet we see 4K60/120 + 64MP Pi camera on the next generation.

what is the maximum practical length for the interface cable?

It seems that focusing the 6mm lens is triping up some users, and theprovided instructions are less that clear !
See this forum thread for clear instructions : https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=272917&p=1655727#p1655727 PeterO

Hats off to the RPi Foundation on this new product. The image quality is a marked improvement. I bought all the kit for around 150 USD from Pimoroni to write up a detailed review showing focal lengths, IQ and tonal range. I also compare indoors/outdoors and studio lighting vs. the classic fixed lens camera. More on the blog: https://medium.com/@alexellisuk/in-depth-review-and-comparison-of-the-raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera-806490c4aeb7

What is the dimension of the nearest object than can be focused at the minimum distance (macro photography)
– With the 16 mm C-mount lens
– With the 6 mm CS-mount lens

Our photographer Fiacre, who took the sample photos in this post, has just had a play around to answer this; he gets about 7cm on the 6mm lens and about 30 cm on the 16mm, but stresses that these aren’t accurate or scientific measurements, just a practical approximation.

The 7cm are for the 6mm or for the 16mm lens?
With the “limited” information of the lens that I have, seems like the results are inverted.

Definitely 7cm for the 6mm lens. I’m no photographer but colleagues who know what they’re talking about are unanimous that the 6mm lens is the one to use for macro shots.

I designed a simple, printable, HAT-sized plate that allows the HQ camera to be mounted to the back of the RPi. You can download the files at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4338081

I will test it on my own to be sure for every detail. But seems that is a great camera. Big like!

Hi.
Is it supposed to work with the CSI-HDMI adapter by Arducam?
Mine is not. Some 60% of the live image turns pink.
The adapter works fine with an 8MP camera, and the new HQ works fine trhough CSI.
Thanks

Yep.
A better cable did the trick. The “high speed” cable provided with the CSI adapter may be not properly shielded.
I can have fun now.
Thanks.

Would love to see 12M pixel on 35MM Canon mount so we can used standard lenses and large telescopes. Would like box we can add that has cooler as well. $200-250 would be fair price. J

I would be very interested to know if/what options there are to construct a stereocamera with two modules. Is ther a schematic diagram of instruction leaflet available to couple the units for synchronous operation?
If somebody has answers and solutions, I would be grateful for a reply on this comment

Is there a chance that you release a black&white, aka No Bayer filter, variant of this?

Looks like they are in stock in-store at some Microcenters. I went and got one today… now to decide if I should end up with 2 or cancel my May 27 preorder…

I reckon this new camera is pointless. As the RaspberryPi is not able to encode 1080p@30fps and write in the same time the footage on the SD card. You only get a lousy 5-15 fps @1080p.

It seems good with CS mount

What is the filter size for the 6mm lens?
(16mm = 37mm)

Raspberry pi stem projects are my passion. I can’t wait to get this, I’ll post the pictures on the gifted geek website http://www.thegiftedgeeks.com. Thanks guys, Sebastian Gordon

Can i use it for clicking my daily photos..? And why it is more expensive in india

We work with our Approved Resellers to ensure fair pricing for our customers. Make sure you’re selecting your local Approved Reseller from our products page to ensure you’re getting the best price. Here’s the link: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera/

Click ‘Buy Now’. In the ‘Country’ dropdown menu on the left of your screen, scroll down to India and our Approved Resellers will appear. We’re working hard to keep all of our stock topped up!

Is there a mounting to secure the 12 mp camera to a raspberrypi zero please

Considering extremely long exposures, I would recommend something like focus stacking instead. That gives you the ability to exclude noise.

Is the close-up image above done with the 6mm lens? Just how close can you get with that lens? I am hoping to use it to scan some old 8mm cine film if it can get that close.

Where i can get it (camera)

Looking to use the camera to approach a line scan camera and use it for judging bike races. Don’t know if the ideas put out for the V2 camera going at 600+ FPS will work with this camera. I figure if I can get it work I can rotate the camera 90 degrees and get a slice of the pixels and as objects (bikes) pass I’ll be able to view them with greater certainty. Or if that can’t work perhaps full frame at 120 FPS with less resolution. Just need to be able to read the rider numbers.

great product.

is there a version with out ir filter??? to nocturnal vision

No; it is possible to remove the IR filter yourself, but note that doing this is irreversible and will void your warranty. More on the hardware at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/camera/README.md.

You can remove the IR cut filter from the standard version quite easily, though it does void your warranty.

The HQ camera module is much more useful for astrophotography than the previous cameras. Here is my first light image of the Moon with the HQ camera and a 250/52mm telescope: http://astronomy.robpettengill.org/blog200531.html

The view of the canon lens attached to the HQ cam is very impressive, however, I wonder what about the electrical interface that, as a minimum requirement, sets the apparatus status from fully open to the selected size?

I’d like to use this for moderate to high speed photography in controlled lighting conditions. At what speeds and conditions (and/or examples) do the photos captured start to exhibit distortion (wobble, skew, aliasing issues)? Are there any guidelines or parameters I can use to understand the limits of using this for higher speed photography? Typically I’d look for a global shutter however this seems to have such good performance it seems it may work fine depending on these details. Thank you!

I did some time lapse videos with the old camera. Now those will look even better with the new one.

It took me a while to understand “where is the camera” :D
Raspberry pi stem projects are my passion.

That drops photography very nice. what do the lenses have to do with megapixels

A better cable did the trick. The “high speed” cable provided with the CSI adapter may be not properly shielded.
It is great. I can have fun now.

Wow, these lenses captured the moon very clearly. The raspberry pi cameras are a bit expensive. But the performance is very good.

I would love to try this camera to take astronomical photos, but to do this I would need to accurately control the image exposure from milliseconds to minutes per frame.
Is it possible with this new camera module?
Cheers, Luke

I notice in the camera spec that it has an integrated IR block filter.
Is there a model without the IR filter or a removable version?
An IR filter is not desirable for astro photography.
Cheers, Luke

Hello, I am very interested in 4K video support, no H.265 encoder is ok, but i really want to know can it (pi 4b + this Pi High Quality Camera plan) ganrantee the 4k video streaming could be transmitted from Camera to my 4k screen fluently and stably through HDMI without other operations(H.265 encoding, etc) ，i really want to know it, thanks.
{Pi High Quality Camera -> HDMI -> my 4k screen}

Is it possible to get mechanical drawings of the lenses themselves? Or at the very least, can you please let me know the sizing of the thumbscrew is used for the telephoto lens?

Can the camera be used as a vision camera to capture a still image of a moving printed web @ 100 m/min?

it would be a good project to come up with a flippable IR filter which can we wired up to the PI which can be dropped in front of a lens attached to the new camera sensor. And expect the camera to be outside the range afforded by the existing viewfinder.

Thank you for this new camera module. I will use it to adapt old legacy lenses.
Bernhard

Hi! I live in India, I am interested in getting this HQ 12.4 MP camera for my research work. I have following questions:
1.How can I get it?
2. Will it work with Raspberry Pi Jump box?
3. What are the other things that I need to get it running?
4. Will I be able to transfer the image to the cell phone through wifi?
Thanks

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