Raspberry Pi Gets 8-Megapixel Sony Camera Modules, Including Infrared

Raspberry Pi since its launch was until today stuck with its official camera accessory, a 5-megapixel OmniVision OV5647 module. However, the company has now introduced the choice of two new camera modules (visible light or infrared) based on the Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor. The new camera modules have the same price as the original 5-megapixel offering, at $25 (roughly Rs. 1,666).

Eben Upton, the Raspberry Pi founder on Monday said in a blog post that, the OmniVision OV5647 sensor was end-of-lifed at the end of 2014 and the large stockpile it had bought was completely depleted. "Fortunately, we'd already struck up conversation with Sony's image sensor division, and so in the nick of time we're able to announce the immediate availability of both visible-light (seen above) and infrared cameras (seen below) based on the Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor, at the same low price of $25."

The two cameras are available from RS Components and Element 14 websites and will reach other retailers soon.

For those unaware, the Sony IMX219 is a fixed-focus sensor and can shoot images in 3280x2464 resolution, record videos in full-HD at 30fps. As per Upton, the sensor's image quality, colour fidelity, and low-light performance are easily handled by the Raspberry Pi's Videocore IV GPU.

The Raspberry Pi foundation in February this year launched the third version of its popular low-power Raspberry Pi development platform, the Raspberry Pi 3. The platform is priced at $35, which is the same price for the Raspberry Pi 2 mini computer unveiled last year. However, unlike the Raspberry Pi 2 mini adds a much request feature - integrated Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth connectivity.

Some of the highlights of the Raspberry Pi 3 include a 1.2GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor which the company says has 10x performance of the Raspberry Pi 1. It also features 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1.