innomaker
George
I like how this colugs into the pi. You don't have to burn a USB port to get things working. I do see a case where I can use this for a project, but needs to be close to the pi. I like the USB ones better so I can stash the pi somewhere else. The quality of the video and images are good. The light input seems good too. Just print off a case for it, silicone it to make it water resistant if you want.
Lofidelityrockr
Decent camera. So far I haven’t found any defects in the lens. Some manufacturers use cheap glass and it can throw off your clarity or there are physical cracks inside. The light sensitivity is moderate. Not bad, not great, but what you do see is clear and what you don’t see doesn’t seem to be all pixelated as the lighting drops away. The FOV is extremely wide, and at 12MP vs the 2MP I tried the day before, all that image stuffed into that little lens is very clear. I could only imagine what this will look like with a lens assembly attached to get zoom and focus on it.
I used this on a RoG Ally Xbox z2 using the VLC app, which is a great all-around free media player and server app that can run most cameras like this. I connected this camera with the supplied USB A cable connected to a USB-C camera adapter dongle that is used for connecting cameras to Apple devices. It also works on my Windows machines as well.
VLC connections established by option “Open Capture Device” under the Media drop down tab and selecting the Video Device Name from the drop-down list. First connection was with the established settings and nothing set by me. It took a few seconds and then there was audio and video. The video was smooth and according to the VLC current media codec metadata, under the Tools menu, the camera is doing 30FPS out the gate in the video below. When I went back into VLC under the same pathway as above I selected Advanced Options where I can fine tune the camera inner settings. I kept getting warnings that the camera didn’t support my changes to fps when I tried to go to 24 and even to 59fps, 60fps, and 120fps. 30 fps is all we get. Don’t worry. If you’re new to all of this and I am speaking gibberish, just know that most consumer grade body cams, action cams, vhs camcorders, and even many 4k cameras, unless they say 60 or more fps, they are doing 29.95 (drop frame) or 30fps which is common, even at 4k quality. I did not change the audio quality, and yes, this one has audio mic built into the PCB somewhere inside the enclosure. I’d still want to use a lap mic or shotgun mic and sync it up in Final Cut or Premiere.
The lens is notched so you should be able to find something to fit over the existing mount to customize.
