Monday, May 20, 2013: RS Components (RS) has announced that it is now shipping the Raspberry Pi camera module, the prototype of which was first demonstrated on the RS stand at the Electronica trade fair in Munich last year.
Priced at $25, the Raspberry Pi camera module has a 5-megapixel CMOS image sensor from OmniVision built on 1.4 micron backside illumination pixel architecture, which delivers 5-megapixel photography, and high frame rate 720p/60 high-definition (HD) video capture. The camera module interfaces to the Raspberry Pi via the existing camera connector, using CSI for data and I2C for control. It allows users to record 720p and 1080p at 30 frames per second in H264 video format.
Commenting on the launch, Gordon Hollingworth, Head of Software at Raspberry Pi said, “Over the last few months, we’ve been working on tuning and refining the Raspberry Pi camera module. We’re very pleased to be able to release the camera board today. It’s tiny, it only weighs a couple of grams, and it has awesome resolution – we’ve been seeing some stunning pictures from it. It’s a really inexpensive way to add video or stills input to your hacks; we’ve already seen trial units we’ve sent out being used in university medical labs, taking pictures from airborne devices and in facial recognition projects.”
“There was a great deal of interest when we first demonstrated the prototype camera module back in November, and the final product has been eagerly awaited. We are delighted that we are now able to start shipping the module to customers, all credit to the team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation who have been working flat out to fine-tune the hardware to get it into production and into our distribution centres as quickly as possible,” said Glenn Jarrett, global head of product marketing of the company.
Interested customers can purchase the camera module from www.rs-components.com and via the online Raspberry Pi store.
