Review on 📷 Arducam Mini Module Camera Shield - 2 Megapixels OV2640 Lens | Compatible with Arduino UNO Mega2560 Board and Raspberry Pi Pico by Craig Lovro

If you are a beginner or need a quick camera solution with minimal pins, this product is not for you. If you like Micropython, this product isn't for you (if you don't like translating header C files into Python). This particular camera arrived with a faulty head cable (with one of the cables broken internally) which led to me spending half a day troubleshooting. I tried to contact Arducam through their contact page, I didn't get any reply. Your registration/login process to the forum is also suspended. This camera requires the use of SPI and I2C. It seems that Arducam abandoned development of this camera halfway through as end users need to do some register hacking over I2C to make the camera work. But that's not all, since another configuration process via the SPI bus is also required. Arducam only provides C header files, no Micropython support. All of the setup over I2C would be nice if it weren't for the hundreds of register writes that have to happen. This camera requires 8 pins including power and ground. To make matters worse, this camera consumes a lot of power. It draws about 100mA (at 5V) when not configured. The "datasheet" says 70mA (5V) in operational mode and 20mA (5V) in standby mode. Even the 20mA standby listed is terrible, it should be in microamps. All I needed was a camera that would allow me to capture JPEG still images using a simple interface. It's not like this.