After the latest OS updates on my Raspberry Pi with Bookworm, my 64MP Hawkeye camera is no longer being detected. I’ve already tried reinstalling the Arducam software but the problem persists. The camera doesn’t show up at all with libcamera-vid --list-cameras and this only started with yesterday’s OS update. Anyone else seeing this?
We’ve had a few reports about this after the recent OS updates. Check out this reference thread for context: Arducam 64Mpx Hawkeye (B0399) no autofocus - #4 by JakeBrowning
Also, here’s a related discussion from the RPi forums that might be relevant: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=372479
We’ve actually released an updated custom libcamera to handle the latest OS changes - the fix is documented here: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2230599#p2230599. Could you try updating to that version and let me know if the camera gets detected?
The updated libcamera fixed the detection issue - the 64MP Hawkeye is showing up now, thanks! Actually, sorry, my mistake - it was working after all.
But now I’ve got a separate problem. My 16MP AF camera (rev c) stopped focusing, so I bought a new rev d, but that one can’t focus at all either. I’m on a Raspberry Pi 5 running libcamera-vid -t 5000 with the latest Arducam software installed. I keep getting this error:
failed to open V4L2 device /dev/v4l-subdev3 invalid argument
Running v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev3 --list-ctrls returns nothing (the old rev c showed focus controls). I even tested the new camera on a Pi 4 - /dev/v4l-subdev1 appears with focus controls there, but autofocus still doesn’t work. Here are the full error logs:
[0:00:32.519040478] [2046] ERROR V4L2 v4l2_device.cpp:93 'ak7375 4-000c': Failed to open V4L2 device '/dev/v4l-subdev3': Invalid argument
[0:00:32.519053145] [2046] ERROR CameraSensor camera_sensor.cpp:556 'imx519 4-001a': Lens initialisation failed, lens disabled
I’m using RPiCamGUI (GitHub - Gordon999/RPiCamGUI · GitHub) for camera control. I’ve tried rpicam-vid --autofocus-mode manual with v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev3 -c focus_absolute=500, and even modified the imx519.json file renaming “rpi.af” to “rpi.mf” - nothing helps.
Thanks for all the detail - that’s really helpful. Could you run libcamera-still -t 0 in autofocus mode and share what you get? I want to confirm something.
Looking at those error logs, the key message here is 'imx519 4-001a': Lens initialisation failed, lens disabled. That’s a known error signature for a faulty imx519 focus motor - specifically the ak7375 driver failing to open the V4L2 subdevice.
Quick question - did the old rev c camera have its AF lens physically removed after it stopped working? If someone fitted a non-AF lens to it, that would explain why AF doesn’t work on that unit. As for the brand new rev d having the same issue, it sounds like you may have received a defective unit off the shelf.
Here’s the diagnosis and solution:
The Lens initialisation failed error combined with ak7375 driver failure is the classic sign of a hardware defect in the imx519 focus motor assembly. This isn’t something software or driver tweaks can fix - the AF mechanism is physically faulty.
What to do:
- The old rev c camera likely had the AF lens fail and was replaced with a non-AF lens, so AF won’t work on that unit anymore.
- For the new rev d that never worked, contact your supplier PiHut (thepihut.com) and request a return - they’ll issue an RMA number with return instructions.
- Order a replacement 16MP AF camera. Once you receive one with a functioning focus motor, make sure you’re using Arducam’s custom libcamera builds, re-enable the camera in RPiCamGUI, and it should work.