Hi, hoping someone can help before I give up on this setup. I’m using the B0371 Autofocus Camera together with the B0283 Pan Tilt, and I’m honestly not impressed with the performance of either.
A few problems:
The mounting points on the 3D step file don’t seem to be in the same place as the actual physical part.
I installed the camera and it worked, but very slowly. Then I installed the pan tilt, which worked fine, but the camera stopped working. After a reinstall the camera worked again until I tried to run the focus application, which gave a ‘no cameras found’ message. A third reinstall and it seems to be working for now.
When I use ctrl+c in focussing mode to save the focus, it doesn’t save anything - it just closes the focussing screen with a Keyboard Interrupt command.
The autofocus facility doesn’t seem to actually do anything.
There’s a terrible time lag between a key hit and anything happening in focus, and taking a photo with the libcamera-still command can take between 7 and 12 seconds to be created. The standard Raspberry Pi camera has no significant lag when taking a photo.
I’m running this on a Raspberry Pi Zero W. I’ve tried numerous fixes suggested online and even started again from scratch with a fresh OS install, installing the pan/tilt first and then the camera. Still hitting issues. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Hi, thanks for the detailed write-up - that helps a lot.
A few things I need to untangle first:
The ctrl+c method to save focus is very strange to me. I can’t figure out where that instruction comes from or what it’s supposed to do. This camera is auto-focus, meaning the focus motor will change every time the auto-focus mode runs. So ctrl+c wouldn’t be a reliable way to “save” a focus position anyway.
The 7-12 second delay to save an image is definitely not normal. It should not take anywhere near that long.
So, two questions to help me narrow this down:
Do you mind telling me what guide you followed? (specifically for the ctrl+c focus-saving step)
What command do you use when you see the 7-12s image save time?
I used ctrl+c because that’s what the operation instructions state - it’s on page 7 of the guide I’ve been following (attached below). I assumed ctrl+c should save the focus setting for the next time the camera is run, but clearly that’s not happening.
On the timing, I suspect it may just be the capability of the Pi Zero W. To test that theory I temporarily moved the SD card over to a Pi 4 from another project. Problem is, now I can’t even test the libcamera-still command because I’m getting the ‘no cameras found’ message again. That shouldn’t happen, all I did was move the SD card from the Pi Zero to the Pi 4.
I re-installed the camera using the attached guide and it still didn’t work. It’s looking like I’ll have to start from the beginning again and re-install the OS etc.
One more thing - the sales information says the camera can be used with the Pi Zero, but it makes no mention of any reduction in performance. I find that a bit misleading.
I mainly need to get the camera working again so I can actually test the performance.
Thanks - that guide reference explains where the ctrl+c idea came from. Let me be clear on this point though: the ctrl+c key combination is not a valid way to save focus. Since the camera auto-focuses, the focus motor position changes every time auto-focus runs, so there is no persistent focus setting being stored. If the guide is suggesting that, we need to double check what page 7 is actually asking you to do - could you quote the exact wording of that step for me?
On the ‘no cameras found’ issue after moving the SD card to the Pi 4: that usually points at the camera driver/overlay not being correctly set up for the board rather than the hardware itself. Reinstalling the camera from the guide should rebuild it, but let’s verify.
Could you do a fresh install on the Pi 4 and then run a capture and paste the full console output here? I want to see exactly what the driver and libcamera report, including any warnings.
OK, I had to start from scratch again - reloaded the OS and re-installed the Pan/Tilt and the IMX519 camera. Manual focus is slightly quicker on the Pi 4, but libcamera-still still takes between 7 and 10 seconds to capture a photo.
I’m also seeing several warnings and I’ve got no way of knowing what they mean or how to fix them.
Environment:
Raspberry Pi 4
Pan/Tilt and IMX519 camera
libcamera v0.0.0+3897-c3c878a9
Command:
pi@focus:~ $ libcamera-still -o test.jpg
Output:
Made X/EGL preview window
[0:11:40.514198527] [1415] INFO Camera camera_manager.cpp:293 libcamera v0.0.0+3897-c3c878a9
[0:11:40.569388021] [1417] WARN CameraSensorProperties camera_sensor_properties.cpp:174 No static properties available for 'imx519'
[0:11:40.569447632] [1417] WARN CameraSensorProperties camera_sensor_properties.cpp:176 Please consider updating the camera sensor properties database
[0:11:40.588484494] [1417] WARN RPI raspberrypi.cpp:1280 Mismatch between Unicam and CamHelper for embedded data usage!
[0:11:40.589624742] [1417] ERROR DelayedControls delayed_controls.cpp:87 Delay request for control id 0x009a090a but control is not exposed by device /dev/v4l-subdev0
[0:11:40.589830684] [1417] INFO RPI raspberrypi.cpp:1404 Registered camera /base/soc/i2c0mux/i2c@1/imx519@1a to Unicam device /dev/media3 and ISP device /dev/media1
[0:11:40.590801859] [1415] INFO Camera camera.cpp:1035 configuring streams: (0) 2328x1748-YUV420
[0:11:40.591354280] [1417] INFO RPI raspberrypi.cpp:765 Sensor: /base/soc/i2c0mux/i2c@1/imx519@1a - Selected sensor format: 2328x1748-SRGGB10_1X10 - Selected unicam format: 2328x1748-pRAA
[0:11:46.013568444] [1415] INFO Camera camera.cpp:1035 configuring streams: (0) 4656x3496-YUV420 (1) 4656x3496-SRGGB10_CSI2P
[0:11:46.020952854] [1417] INFO RPI raspberrypi.cpp:765 Sensor: /base/soc/i2c0mux/i2c@1/imx519@1a - Selected sensor format: 4656x3496-SRGGB10_1X10 - Selected unicam format: 4656x3496-pRAA
Still capture image received
Thanks, that log is useful. The image is actually being captured (“Still capture image received”), so the camera is detected and streaming - the warnings you’re seeing are mostly informational (sensor property database and the embedded-data/Unicam messages), not fatal.
That said, the 7-10s capture time is still not normal and points at the camera driver/config not being fully set up for this board/camera combination. The attached guide you used doesn’t seem to be getting the driver installed correctly.
Let’s do this properly. You can follow the link below to install the B0371 camera driver:
That’s the official Quick Start Guide for the IMX519 / Hawkeye 64MP camera and it covers the correct driver installation and configuration. Reinstall following that doc, reboot, then rerun:
libcamera-still -o test.jpg
and post the full output again, plus the timing you observe.
Quick summary of where we are so far, so this thread stays useful:
The ctrl+c “save focus” step is not valid. The camera is auto-focus, so the focus motor moves on every auto-focus run - there’s no stored focus position to save with ctrl+c. If your guide really says to press ctrl+c on page 7, please quote the exact wording, but treat that as a misunderstanding of how the focus works here.
The ‘no cameras found’ error after moving the SD card between boards points to the driver/overlay not being configured for the current board, not the hardware. A clean reinstall is the right move.
The 7-12s (and now 7-10s) capture delay is the real remaining problem. The log shows the sensor IS registered and a capture IS received, so this isn’t a dead camera - it’s a driver/config issue. The correct fix path is to reinstall the B0371 driver following the official Quick Start Guide:
Install that, reboot, and re-test with libcamera-still -o test.jpg. If the capture is still slow after a correct driver install, post the new log and we’ll look at the next step. If the guide you were originally following is the one you attached, it’s worth switching to the Quick Start Guide above instead, since that’s the supported install method.