Raspberry Pi Foundation – creator of the Raspberry Pi – has announced that its partners will be manufacturing two improved 8-megapixel camera for the Raspberry Pi: the Pi Camera v2 (visible light) and Pi NoIR Camera (infra-red). According to the company, the new and improved camera sensors will be utilising Sony’s IMX219 sensor.
Prior to this, the only “official” camera module available for the Raspberry Pi was the OmniVision 5-megapixel sensor, which was first introduced back in 2013. Raspberry Pi Foundation mentioned that the Sony IMX219 camera sensor not only comes with better resolution, but also offer improvements in image quality, colour fidelity and low-light performance as well. Both new camera sensors are capable of producing photos of 3280 x 2464 resolution as well as the ability to record 1080p videos at 30fps.
In addition to that, both new 8-megapixel Raspberry Pi camera modules will retain the aesthetics of the older OmniVision camera sensor. This means that consumers will be able to use the Sony IMX219 camera sensor with existing Raspberry Pi boards. The same can also be said about software compatibilities as well.
Interestingly, Raspberry Pi Foundation has decided that both the Pi Camera v2 and Pi NoIR camera modules will retain the same price (US$25) as the OmniVision camera module. Currently, Element14 – Raspberry Pi distributor in Malaysia – is retailing the new camera boards for RM105.
(Source: Raspberry Pi Blog via Hexus, Engadget)
