IMX519 quad cam array captures without autofocus on Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye 6.1.21

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hi everyone, I bought an IMX519 quad cam array and I can’t get autofocus to work at all. Photos are being taken with no autofocus. I’m on a fresh install of Raspberry Pi OS bullseye with kernel 6.1.21. This looks like the same issue someone reported here: No Autofocus working IMX519 - #9 by Edward. Has anyone else run into this?

2

Thanks for the details. Before we dig in, can you confirm that the output/behavior you’re seeing matches what’s described in this post? No Autofocus working IMX519 - #20 by ArduRichy Just want to make sure we’re dealing with the same symptom before I suggest next steps.

3

Yeah, I’m getting the same output as that post. No autofocus working on the IMX519 quad cam array. Images are coming out blurry, and I’m seeing the same error messages — it seems like libcamera is unable to communicate properly with the cameras, either to set the focus value manually or to trigger autofocus mode. For context, these cameras are installed in an underwater station monitoring corals and marine life in Malaysia. We previously used 64 MP cameras in the first prototype and they worked fine, but that housing leaked and was destroyed by water. The IMX519 quad kit is in the second prototype deployed on the coral reef, and now everything is blurry.

4

Got it, thanks. That libcamera communication failure with the cameras for focus control is a good clue. Let’s collect a proper bug report so we can see what’s happening under the hood. Please do the following:

  1. Reboot your device.
  2. Download the bug report tool:
wget -O arducam-camera-bug-report https://github.com/Dion4cen/arducam-camera-bug-report/releases/download/Tool/arducam-camera-bug-report
  1. Make it executable:
chmod +x ./arducam-camera-bug-report
  1. Run it:
./arducam-camera-bug-report

That will generate arducam-bug-report.txt in the current directory. Send that file over and we’ll take a look.

5

Done. I rebooted the Pi, downloaded the tool, ran it, and it produced arducam-bug-report.txt. Since it’s from our deployed unit, I’ve sent the file to you through private message. Let me know what you find.

6

Thanks, I’ve received the bug report. We’re still digging into why libcamera is failing to communicate with the IMX519 for focus control — nothing conclusive yet. I’ll follow up here once the analysis points to a fix or a workaround. In the meantime, keep the camera running as-is so we can compare against the report if we need more data.