IMX327 Camera on RPi5 and Bookworm

BamBam · January 10, 2024, 10:27pm

Where did you get the camera module(s)? Amazon
Model number of the product(s)? B0442
What hardware/platform were you working on? RPi5
Instructions you have followed. (link/manual/etc.) Lost track
Problems you were having? Making the camera work consistently and with Picam2

I started this thread in the “Pi5/Bookworm compatibility” thread but I figured I would move it to a new thread since I usually get dinged on posting new topics in existing threads plus I have more information from my original post.

In the original question, I simply could not get my imx327 (Arducam #B0442) to work with the RPi5 and bookworm. I’ve had this model camera working on an RPi4 with buster just fine. All I could get was “no cameras available” when trying to get an image with libcamera-still or with a python program that works with a Pi V1.3 camera on the RPi5 and an identicle imx327 camera on a RPi4.

Since that post, I found another thread on this forum, “Running B0423 - IMX462 on Pi5 bookworm”, (Running B0423 - IMX462 on Pi5 bookworm - #3 by ronaldvt) that pointed me to a “new_imx290.json” file and a libcamera-still command to get an image from the camera. I downloaded the .json file and tried the command, “libcamera-still -t 0 --tuning-file ./new_imx290.json”, and it worked. I got a nice image from the camera. So I guess that at least proves out that all of the hardware works. The problem is that the only way I can get an image is from that command. I haven’t figured out what I need to do to get an image with the libcamera-still.

I was thinking it would be as simple as replacing the “imx290.json” file in the “/usr/share/libcamera/ipa/rpi/vc4” directory with the new .json but that didn’t work. I still get the “no cameras available” message if I try to get an image with both raspi-still without the tunning prameter and with Picam2 in python.

That’s where I’m stuck for now. Would appreciate any help I can get here.

Dion · January 11, 2024, 7:15am

Hi @BamBam

Appreciated.

I thought that you need to add tuning file on the Picamera2 code. You can refer to the link below to learn how to load tuning file on a Picamera2 code.

github.com

raspberrypi/picamera2/blob/main/examples/tuning_file.py

#!/usr/bin/python3
import time

from picamera2 import Picamera2, Preview

# Here we load up the tuning for the HQ cam and alter the default exposure profile.
# For more information on what can be changed, see chapter 5 in
# https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/camera/raspberry-pi-camera-guide.pdf

tuning = Picamera2.load_tuning_file("imx477.json")
algo = Picamera2.find_tuning_algo(tuning, "rpi.agc")
if "channels" in algo:
    algo["channels"][0]["exposure_modes"]["normal"] = {"shutter": [100, 66666], "gain": [1.0, 8.0]}
else:
    algo["exposure_modes"]["normal"] = {"shutter": [100, 66666], "gain": [1.0, 8.0]}

picam2 = Picamera2(tuning=tuning)
picam2.configure(picam2.create_preview_configuration())
picam2.start_preview(Preview.QTGL)
picam2.start()

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BamBam · January 11, 2024, 5:31pm

That worked. I added the line “tuning’…” and added the "tuning=tuning parameter to the “picam2-Picamera…” and I got a picture. I thought I had tried that earlier but that may have been before I downloaded the new imx290.json file.

But still a question. Is this a permanent thing that the tuning file has to be added in the libcamera-still command and the python code or will there be a patch in the future that only requires the imx290.json entry in the config.txt file.