Review on Arducam Camera Bundle CS Mount Enclosure by Yolanda Johnson

I bought the camera to complement/replace a CS mount ELP camera used for video conferencing while working from home. Unfortunately, Arducam is not available in Germany (or generally in the entire EU). Fortunately, the camera can be ordered worldwide through Revain USA. Like the ELP camera, the Arducam is UV compatible, which means that both can be used as a plug and play device and require no additional drivers other than a standard USB stick. Video drivers provided by the operating system (in my case the Linux kernel module uvcvideo). However, coming from an IMX317 based ELP webcam, Arducam's IMX477 is a huge improvement in terms of image quality. Especially when combined with Arducam's high-speed USB interface for smooth video streaming. Even uncompressed RGB3/YU12/YV12 streams can be used at the same frame rate as when using JPEG (MJPEG) compression, although the interface is USB-2 only. Nevertheless, the camera comes with an illogical "calibration": In addition to the fact that the image is not adjusted to the flange distance of the CS mount (which is a problem with almost all CS mount bodies used for such "webcams". installed), the image sensor is mounted in the wrong orientation. Tedious but fixable in less than two minutes - simply loosen the screws holding the assembly in place and rotate the assembly (and backplate) 180°. Setting the correct back focus is always a bit tedious, but still possible with this camera. The infinity setting I used is far from perfect, but it's good enough for my conference camera use case. The included 6mm lens (fingerprint before delivery) is quite good and delivers good image quality; it even appears to be a (multi-layer?) coating. However, I prefer industrial grade C-mount lenses to Arducam lenses. A nice feature is the built in IR filter which can be removed if someone needs to take photos/videos in the IR range. Good quality camera that can be used as a webcam for conferences. Addendum (2021-07-26): After using the camera for several months while being forced to use the Zoom conferencing software, I noticed that the Arducam controller does not offer this option. to enable HD reading of the video stream from the 4:3 sensor. However, this is more of a limitation of Zoom (Linux only?). Other programs usually work with either resolution or reading mode. Consequently, the image is cropped vertically, resulting in a narrower angle of view compared to my old IMX317 camera in terms of "HD quality". Lighting (lightly shaded highlights). First, this may be due to the fairly dense IR filter and smaller pixel size compared to the IMX317. I'll try swapping out the filter for a less dense one at some point and see if that helps. The latter can only be solved by ensuring proper lighting with limited dynamic range - for this reason I changed the purpose of the Arducam to serve as a document camera on a reproduction stand for lectures I give at my university. However, this camera is one of the best hassle-free (plug and play) options for using industrial or professional lenses with a USB webcam.