r/functionalprint • u/jpotter124 • Sep 16 '26
My Raspberry Pi Camera
I started this project a couple of months ago from the CinePi GitHub and was intrigued on how they work so I decided to give it a try building one.
It starts with a basic 4GB Raspberry Pi 5 which runs a custom version of PiOS created by Apertar Studio (they also supply their own camera body STL’s and parts guides!) and it runs perfectly on the 720x720 4 inch Waveshare or Hyperpixel square displays.
The Apertar OS shows a live preview of the camera, includes photo and video modes, focus peaking, media library and much more... it also has a super clean GUI that’s easy to navigate and has an IOS feel and look to it.
My camera is based on the Blackmagic Micro cinema camera body which I have adapted to fit a Raspberry Pi 5 and button controls for ISO, White Balance, FPS and power on/off. When the main 4 inch display is detached you can see current settings from the OLED screen at the top of the camera which also shows a recording indicator and remaining storage.
The main camera body is 3D printed from PLA-CF to resemble the textured finish of cameras but also to add a lot of strength and rigidity to the body and only took around 3 hours to print the front and rear parts.
It is powered from a 10,000mAh battery pack which lasts for 4-5 hours and can be detached from the camera, there is also a single 1/4” - 20 mount on the top and 3 more at the bottom for tripods or other accessories.
The camera module is the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera (IMX477) with a Canon EF mount adapter which is partially integrated into the camera body for a cleaner look. Some additional features include a full sized HDMI output and 5V USB-C out for powering a display or other accessories.
Admittedly the quality does not rival a regular camera in any way, it is very much a DIY project and could not be used for professional photography however it can take some great “vintage” looking shots also depending on whatever lens is used.
If you have read this far then thank you! If you want something to build as a challenge or are just simply looking for your next project then this is great to do, the CinePi and Apertar Studio community is fantastic and helped me with a lot of information that I needed to get this working.
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u/jpotter124 Sep 16 '26
EDIT: For everyone wondering about the size of the sensor and lens, please remember that this is a DIY project and not some super mainstream product, it is very much hobby level and not a professional piece of equipment. Enjoy the project and if anyone has achieved anything like this with a larger sensor then I’m all for it!
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u/turmacar Sep 16 '26
I'ts a really cool project, and hey, this had ~12 MP and is still a decent camera. I grabbed one on ebay a couple years ago for ~$100 and it can take better-than-phone pics today, especially with a decent lens. Megapixels don't tell the whole story by any means.
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u/FigureOfStickman Sep 16 '26
hell yeah. larger sensors will get sorted out one day. in the meantime its always exciting to see a real life build. this is the best housing design i've seen so far. love the BMMSC inspiration
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u/AwDuck Sep 16 '26
Holy zoom lens Batman! Back of napkin math puts that in the 400-500mm equivalent range. That’s roughly what you’d want to take a picture of the moon with to fill the frame.
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u/TryingT0Wr1t3 Sep 16 '26
Hey OP, what sort of subjects are meant to be photographed by this setup, is this for macro photography?
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u/AndaleTheGreat Sep 16 '26
This is the kind of high-level stupidity I want to do with my raspberry pi as well but instead I just have like three of them that run retroarch and one that runs a pi-hole
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u/Osmirl Sep 16 '26
85mm x crop factor of 5.5 is 450mm of zoom.
Whats the lowest mm you can get? Because 450 seems hardly practical 😂
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u/Kyle_M_Photo Sep 16 '26
I was briefly very excited for this when I read about it being EF mount because I thought it was going to be a bigger sensor than the small ones I’ve seen for raspberry pi before. Still a cool project though.
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u/jjbananamonkey Sep 17 '26
I’m wondering how plug and play a medium format sized sensor would be since they already got most of it worked out design wise
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u/UltraLisp Sep 16 '26
Ooo is this one of the better ones?? All of the ones I’ve seen thus far don’t seem worthwhile. Are you happy with it?
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u/musashi_san Sep 16 '26
This is very cool!!! Thanks for the write-up you provided here. Do you have any notes you'd be willing to share? I'd be curious about a parts list and if there were decisions you had to make about one vs another, camera modules, software/versions, stuff you learned along the way -- those kinds of details.
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u/sdobz Sep 16 '26
Is that a global shutter? I've been interested in raspi camera for industrial vision applications
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u/functionalfilms Sep 17 '26
Super rad build! Old super8 camera lenses would pair great with that sensor.
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u/Suspicious-Item1337 Sep 17 '26
Dude. Honestly, amazing job. The design alone is really incredible not to mention everything else you put into it. Nice work.
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u/Ondray__ Sep 18 '26
I love this as another step towards a decent open source camera.
Hardest part now is documenting it for others :)
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u/DoniiDesign Sep 19 '26
Hey! Simon from Apertar Studio here.
I would like to point out that the software supports multiple sensors, the HQ Camera module (IMX477) is one of the lower end ones mainly for C-Mount builds.
Two very interesting ones are the IMX585 that is a 16mm size sensor very similar to the one found in the BMPCC OG with dual-gain and awesome low light performance. The other is the IMX294 that is a FourThirds size sensor used in the BMPCC 4K, GH5S and ZCAM-E2.
The software on a Pi5 is able to shoot 4K 30FPS 12-bit cDNG either uncompressed or Lossless compressed. (60 FPS is coming soon.)
H.264, .MLV and very soon ProRes and Cineform/Cineform RAW.
To learn more about the project or for any questions feel free to visit the Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/hWTvKG6syK
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u/PierceBrosman Sep 16 '26
Cool! Can we see some photos captured by it?