Camera interfacing with the RasPi

The RasPi has the Broadcom multimedia processor BCM2835, which has an integrated Videocore-IV graphics engine. There are multiple ways to interface the camera with the RasPi connectors. As described in Chapter 1, Meeting Your Buddy – the Raspberry Pi, (refer to the diagram showing the RasPi's port description), the RasPi has a dedicated CSI port for connecting the camera module. This port can be located near the Ethernet controller (in the case of model B) or near the 4-pole audio connector (in the case of model B+). The Camera Serial Interface (CSI) port is dedicated to camera interfacing in mobile devices and advanced peripheral controllers. We have two options to interface the cameras with our RasPi. We can either interface the webcam via USB, or choose the camera module from the Raspberry Pi organization known as the Raspberry Pi camera module.

The RasPi camera modules

There are two options when buying the dedicated camera modules to be interfaced with...