YOU’LL NEED THIS
The new Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera is fantastic. It may cost much more than the standard camera, but it uses interchangeable lenses (bought separately). We can also use old C and CS-mount lenses, or other lenses via adaptors. A proper aluminum screw mount provides a solid fitting to secure our camera to a tripod. The new camera connects to all models of Pi with a camera connector, including later models of the Pi Zero via an adapter cable. It can be controlled using Python, as we did in this tutorial, and can be used directly via the raspistill and raspivid commands in the Terminal.
RASPBERRY PI 4 OR 3B+
But what makes the latest camera so different to those before it is that there’s so much manual control. We can alter the focus and light levels to get the best shot. We can use the camera as a webcam for video calls to friends and family. The new camera starts at $50 with no lens, and a 6mm wide-angle lens is around $25. A 16mm telephoto lens costs around $50. Both of these lenses provide crisp optics for the Sony IMX477R 12.3 megapixel sensor.
RASPBERRY PI CAMERA
Preferably the High Quality camera.
RASPBIAN
The Pi’s Debian-based operating system.