#Raspberry Pi: ArduCAM revels a 64MP Hawk-eye camera

Last December, I wrote an article about the crowdfunded "High Resolution Autofocus Camera Module" for Raspberry Pi from Arducam. That camera costs only USD25 and has autofocus and a resolution of 16 MP. You can read more about it here: Raspberry Pi: ArduCAM powerful $25 camera with high resolution and autofocus.

Last week, I got a sample of the new Arducam Hawk-eye camera. The camera module also has autofocus but the resolution has been improved to 64MP and it’s available from the Arducam store at a pre-order discount ($59.99 $35.99 as I'm writing this article). Let's start with the review of this new camera module!

Driver Installation

The official drivers for the Raspberry Pi camera modules (V1/V2/HQ) are already built-in in Raspberry Pi OS. For the Arducam 16MP, and now for the 64MP Hawk-eye camera, you need to install the drivers by yourself. The good news is that Arducam provides a bash file that does everything for you. Just open a Terminal on your Raspberry Pi and type the following:

wget https://github.com/ArduCAM/Arducam-Pivariety-V4L2-Driver/releases/download/install_script/install_pivariety_pkgs.sh

chmod +x install_pivariety_pkgs.sh

./install_pivariety_pkgs.sh -p 64mp_pi_hawk_eye_kernel_driver

./install_pivariety_pkgs.sh -p libcamera_dev

./install_pivariety_pkgs.sh -p libcamera_apps

After installing the drivers, open the file /boot/config.txt, and under [pi4], add the following line:

dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,cma-512

Otherwise you will get the following error while taking a photo:

ERROR V4L2 v4l2_videodevice.cpp:1179 /dev/video0[13:cap]: Unable to request 1 buffers: Cannot allocate memory

Comparing The Specs

In the following table, you can find the comparison between the Raspberry Pi cameras:

Camera in Action

I took some photos, so that you can evaluate the quality by yourself. I also added two videos in which you can see the focus and the zoom functionalities working.

Fig. 1: Focus on Baby Tonie (raw).

Fig. 2: Focus on Blue Tonie (raw).

Fig. 3: Focus on Santa Tonie (raw).

Fig. 4: Focus on Rudolf (raw).

Video 1: Changing the Focus between Tonies.

Video 2: Zooming and focusing.

Additional information can be found on the camera page, where you’ll also find other image samples taken with this camera.

Conclusions

ArduCAM has developed a new camera module for the Raspberry Pi in less than 3 months since the last Kickstarter campaign. The resolution is 4x greater than the latest offered model. The module also has autofocus and the driver allows you to use digital zoom which makes it easier for you to focus on objects as you can see on Video 2.

This camera is a great first option if you need to buy a camera for the Raspberry Pi and you don't want to go through different lenses and eventually other problems. The driver installation was straightforward and the examples in the repository help you to integrate the camera into your Python project! As I mentioned in the article for the ArduCAM 16MP, I can only identify following downsides of the ArduCAM, but they are application-related.

The advantages of a full autofocus functionality come with these downsides:

• An integrated lens that is not swappable. The Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Module offers, by contrast interchangeable lenses, making it possible to adapt the device for everything from ultra-wide-angle and macro to telephoto projects.
• Fixed-Focus is best for handling high vibrations. Autofocus uses an electromagnet to move a magnet that is mounted to a free-moving lens. So in high-vibrations, the vibrations are stronger than the electromagnetic force - and the lens vibrates all over the place - causing blurry/weird/"jello" images/video. Examples of high-vibration installations include mounted to a: Drone, Lawn Mower, Harley Davidson motorcycles, etc.

If you are also interested in other products. ArduCAM also offers a 64MP Quad-Camera Kit with an Arducam UC-512 expansion board and four 64MP Pi Hawk-eye camera modules that allows you to take four high-resolution photos from a single Raspberry Pi 4 at almost the same time. Other accessories are a pan-tilt kit, a camera & cable extension kit using RJ45 ports and Cat-5 cable to extend the range of the camera, and a CSI-to-HDMI adapter set. All those can be bought from the official ArduCAM store.