After managing to get Arducam 16mpx (IMX519) running on RPI Zero I’m somewhat disappointed with the picture quality. Pictures look a bit bleak, like behind a foggy film.
If you think the image is too dark, you can try to adjust the exposure and gain.
The corresponding parameters are shutter and gain.
Gain refers to the amplification level of the electronic amplifier inside the camera module, which can be adjusted at the analog circuit level or at the digital signal processing level. The larger the gain value, the stronger the output signal, the brighter the image, but it also introduces more noise. Gain can be used to enhance image brightness in low-light environments, but care should be taken not to increase it excessively, otherwise it will affect image quality.
Exposure refers to the shutter time inside the camera module, which is the camera’s light-receiving time. The longer the exposure time, the more light the camera receives, and the brighter the image, but it also increases the risk of image blur and motion blur. If the exposure time is too short, the image will be too dark. When shooting static objects, exposure time can be set according to the brightness of the environment and the sensitivity of the photosensitive element to obtain appropriate image brightness and clarity.
In summary, gain and exposure are both parameters used to adjust image brightness, but gain controls the signal strength while exposure controls the time that light enters the photosensitive element. When using camera modules, these two parameters can be adjusted flexibly according to actual needs to obtain suitable image effects.
