First things first: We are officially funded! Thanks to your incredible support, we have reached 117% of our goal. This means the 5MP GS Pi Camera is a reality, and we are moving full steam ahead into production.
This week, we’re focusing on one of the most requested features: motorized focus control.
Software-Defined Focus Control
Our camera isn’t just fast; it’s sharp. Using the onboard motor driver, you can adjust the focus of your lens programmatically via software. This is essential where the subject distance might change dynamically and manual adjustment is impossible.
To demonstrate, we’ve captured two shots:
You can control this directly from the command line using v4l2-ctl. Here is the control interface as seen on our V2 hardware:
WV@radxa_test:~$ v4l2-ctl -Dd /dev/v4l-subdev3 --all
Camera Controls: focus_absolute 0x009a090a (int) : min=0 max=1023 step=1 default=0 value=360
With 1024 levels of granularity, you have the precision needed to automate focus-stacking or implement custom auto-focus algorithms.
Ultimate Flexibility: The M12 Mount
While the motorized focus gives you software control, we know many of you have very specific optical requirements. These features can help:
- Swappable Lenses The camera uses a standard M12 mount. If you need a different focal length, a wider field of view, or specialized optics, you can easily switch lenses.
- Range Calibration If you want to shift the physical focus range (for example, to optimize for close/micro work), you can simply rotate the M12 lens in or out along its threads. This allows you to set a custom "starting point" that the motor can then adjust from.
This combination of software-driven motor control and physical M12 compatibility makes this module one of the most flexible camera systems available for the Raspberry Pi.
What’s Next?
Now that we’ve met our funding goal, we are spending extra time on libcamera integration and preparing the manufacturing.
Keep your feedback coming!
Don’t worry, you can still back the campaign and get your own 5MP GS camera. Thank you for making this project a success!