Install a Camera on Your Raspberry Pi: The Ultimate Guide

I still remember the first time I tried to install a camera on my Raspberry Pi. I thought it would be plug and play, but I quickly realized I had no clue what to enable or configure. If you’re feeling the same, don’t worry. I’ll walk you through every step so you can get your camera up and running in minutes.

On a Raspberry Pi, the official camera module connects directly to the CSI camera port. With Raspberry Pi OS, the camera interface is enabled by default and can be tested using the rpicam-still command to capture an image.

In this guide, I’ll explain the full setup step by step, from choosing the right camera to capturing your first image. I’ll also cover common mistakes and a few practical tips to help you get everything working smoothly.

If you’re new to Raspberry Pi or Linux, I’ve got something that can help you right away!
Download my free Linux commands cheat sheet – it’s a quick reference guide with all the essential commands you’ll need to get things done on your Raspberry Pi. Click here to get it for free!

What’s Needed to Install a Camera on Raspberry Pi

Let’s get over the big picture of what hardware to get and how to prepare your software for using a camera on a Raspberry Pi.

Hardware Prerequisites

All flagship Raspberry Pi models (Pi 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1), as well as the Raspberry Pi Zero boards, support adding a camera through an onboard connector.

If you already have a camera for the Raspberry Pi, perfect, you’re ready to go. But if you haven’t already ordered your accessories, here are a few tips.

Camera Models

Unlike USB cameras sold for PCs, the number of products available for Raspberry Pi is quite limited; however, there’s still a choice to be make between these main options.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation offers a few camera models:

Are there other options available?
If you are looking for an affordable solution, there isn’t a better model than these. If you just want to have one for educational purposes, you can absolutely find a cheaper camera.

For example, this one was my first camera, it’s perfect to learn how to use a camera on Raspberry Pi, but the quality is lower. It’s half the price, but if you have to buy another one a few months later, it’s not worth it.

Additional Accessories

A camera is an external device which will often stay outside the case, so depending on what your projects are, other accessories might be useful.

I will just give you a few extra links to look at, so you can do your research easily:

• Some cases are compatible with the camera module.
  For example, the “Argon Neo” has a built-in support for the camera on the case (check the picture on Amazon). For more details, you can read my full review of this case here.
• Another solution is to keep your current case for the Raspberry Pi and use a simple holder to keep the camera standing properly.
  
  There are many similar products, you can check this one for example.
  Along with the benefit of keeping your current case, it’s also easier to use the camera if you can just put it on a table (for example), instead of trying to keep it in the right place and orientation.
• The last thing you may need is another camera cable.
  The included cable is 15 cm long, that’s fine for basic use, but you may need to have a shorter or longer cable to fit your needs.
  In this pack on Amazon, you have a few cable lengths you can use and change for each project (from 30 cm to 1 m).

Note: Check to make sure you have the right cable for your Raspberry Pi.
– The Raspberry Pi 4 / Pi 3 / Pi 2 / Pi 1 all use the standard 15-pin cable. This cable is usually included with any Pi camera you buy.
– The Pi 5 and Pi Zero / Zero 2 require a DIFFERENT 22-pin cable. You’ll probably have have to purchase this cable separately (buy here).

Quick note: If you find it hard to remember all these commands, I’ve put them all on a one-page cheat sheet. You can download it for free here so you have it handy whenever you're working on a project.

How to Install a Camera on Raspberry Pi

Now that you have everything you need, we can start the camera installation itself.

Hardware Installation

Installing a camera on Raspberry Pi is straightforward once you find the location of the port:

• Take the Raspberry Pi board in hand.
  Unplug all cables, the Raspberry Pi must be turned off and disconnected from the power supply.
• Find the camera port on the Raspberry Pi.
  This is in different places depending on which board you have.
  • On the Pi 4 / Pi 3 / Pi 2 / Pi 1 – it’s located between the HDMI and audio jack.
    You’ll find it easily because it’s the only one that fits the cable width, and it should be written “CAMERA” on the main board.
    
  • On the Pi 5 – there are two camera connectors, located between the HDMI and Ethernet port. You’ll see “CAM/DISP0” and “CAM/DISP1” printed next to them.
    
  • On the Pi Zero / Zero 2 – it’s located on the right edge, next to the power port.
    
• Before plugging in the cable, you may need to remove the plastic film and lightly pull the black plastic.
• Plug the cable and push the black plastic to hold the cable inside.
  Make sure to align both connectors on the same side.
  On Raspberry Pi 5, plug it this way (black side towards the HDMI ports):
  
  On other models, the cable connectors face the HDMI port side, so the blue side of the ribbon towards the USB ports):
  
• Then I recommend starting with a rapid test before putting everything back into the case and/or in the holder, just to be sure that it’s working.

Plug all cables back (power, HDMI, network, USB …) and start the Raspberry Pi.

If you have any doubts, you can watch the first minute of this video to see how to plug your camera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHjwx2AQHxU

Enable the Camera Port on Raspberry Pi OS

On recent versions of Raspberry Pi OS, the camera port is enabled by default, so no action is needed in the configuration.

For older versions, it may need to be enabled either through the raspi-config tool (Interface Options > Camera) or via the configuration tool (under the Interfaces tab).

If you experience any issues with the camera installation, or for any reason, it doesn’t work as expected, please check this troubleshooting guide for the Raspberry Pi camera module.

Commands to Interact With the Raspberry Pi Camera

I will now introduce two useful commands to record and see what happens to your camera.

Note: raspistill and raspivid commands are no longer supported on Raspberry Pi Bullseye and newer versions. Try to switch to the new commands as soon as possible, it’s basically the same. But if you are still using an old version (RPI OS Legacy) or have enabled legacy support, you still have access to them.

Take a Photo

The first thing you can try is to simply take a picture of the image seen by the camera.
“rpicam-still” is the new command on Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm (replacing “raspistill” and “libcamera-still”).
It’s already installed on your system.

To use it, the basic command line is:
rpicam-still -o image.jpg

When running this command, you should see a preview for a few seconds, and then it will save the image in the destination file.

With -o you define the target file name (where the pictures will be saved).
It’s possible to use a file name including the path, for example:
rpicam-still -o ~/Pictures/mypicture.jpg

Use the -h parameter to display all the possible options for this command:
rpicam-still -h

Here are a few interesting options you can try:

• –width: Set the output image width (default: 0, uses camera default)
• –height: Set the output image height (default: 0, uses camera default)
• -t / –timeout: Time in milliseconds for which the program runs (default: 5000 ms)
• -o / –output: Set the output file name
• -n / –nopreview: Do not show a preview window
• -p / –preview: Set the preview window dimensions as x,y,width,height (e.g. 0,0,640,480; default: 0,0,0,0)
• -f / –fullscreen: Use a fullscreen preview window
• –qt-preview: Use a Qt-based preview window (warning: causes heavy CPU load; fullscreen not supported)
• –rotation: Request an image rotation; accepted values are 0 or 180 (default: 0)
• –brightness: Adjust the brightness of the output image in the range -1.0 to 1.0 (default: 0)
• –contrast: Adjust the contrast of the output image, where 1.0 = normal contrast (default: 1)
• –saturation: Adjust the colour saturation of the output, where 1.0 = normal and 0.0 = greyscale (default: 1)
• -q / –quality: Set the JPEG quality parameter (default: 93)

For your information, on the Legacy edition of Raspberry Pi OS, it will be:
raspistill -o image.jpg

Record a Video

To record a video, the command is similar.
“rpicam-vid” is the corresponding command name (replacing “raspivid” and “libcamera-vid”).

So similar to pictures, to record a video use the command:
rpicam-vid -o video.h264
Use the CTRL+C shortcut to stop the recording, or add the -t option to specify the recording duration.

H264 files are compatible with VLC.
If needed, you can install it on Raspberry Pi OS Desktop with:
sudo apt install vlc

It’s the same to see all the parameters available, use rpicam-vid -h to get all options with a short description. Useful options are:

• –t: to choose the video duration in ms (ex: 6000 for a 6s video). This way you don’t need to use CTRL+C and can schedule the video capture with a script or cron.
• -w and -h: video size (width and height).

Transfer Pictures and Videos to Your Computer (Raspberry Pi OS)

If you want to transfer pictures taken on the Raspberry Pi to your computer after this, the easiest way is to use software like FileZilla or WinSCP.

FileZilla is a free tool available on Windows, Linux and macOS.
It’s mostly used to connect to FTP servers, but there is an option to use it for SFTP transfers.
You can download the setup files here. SFTP is a secured protocol to copy files on the network over SSH. So, you don’t need anything else on the Raspberry Pi (just make sure SSH is enabled).

Anyway, once SSH is enabled, here is how to use it:

• Open FileZilla
• To try it quickly, you can use the quick connect option under the menu:
  
  But there is also a “Site manager” to store all your servers and connect without entering anything.
• Fill the host with the Raspberry Pi IP address.
  Then your username and password (the one you created during the installation).
• Click “Quickconnect” when ready.
• On the left side, this is your computer, browse to the path where you want to download files to (C:\Users\username\Pictures for example).
• On the right side, it’s the Raspberry Pi, browse to the location where you saved the pictures or video.
• Double-click on a file to download it.
  Or select multiple files, right-click and “Download files”.

Control the Camera With Python

The last interesting thing I want to show you is how to use an advanced programming language (Python) to go further with your camera and include it as part of bigger projects.

If you’re new to Python and want to do more things on Raspberry, I think you may need to learn the basics first (I wrote a book especially to help you do this, check it out if you’re interested).

Python is the main programming language on Raspberry Pi. And the good news is that everything is already available to use Python directly on Raspberry Pi OS (editors, compilers, basic libraries, …).

If you’re on Raspberry Pi OS Desktop, there are many editors you can use like Thonny (pre-installed) or others you can install with apt.

Python code combined with your Pi’s camera module means anything is possible. For example, you could write a script that waits 5 seconds for you to smile, plays a sound effect to let you know the camera is about to activate, and then snaps a photograph.

To learn how to program these advanced features, check out our full tutorial here.
(By the way, if you find the above too complex, there’s an easier camera command for beginners: How to Use picamzero to Take Photos and Videos.)

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to using a camera on Raspberry Pi. If you make bigger projects with your camera, it would be nice to share them here with us, I’ll love it!

If you’re looking for more project ideas you can do with a camera, click on the link to find my recommendations, and you’ll see that everything is possible.

And if you’d like to try a web interface to control your Raspberry Pi camera (but also standard security cams), check out my tutorials on MotionEye or ZoneMinder.

Related Questions

How to fix the error “raspistill: command not found”?

Raspistill and raspivid are no longer available on recent Raspberry Pi OS versions. They have been replaced with “rpicam” commands like rpicam-still and rpicam-vid.

Check the sections above on taking photos and videos to learn the new commands to interact with your camera. Don’t try to enable raspistill or raspivid—they’re commands of the past :-).

Can I plug a camera into a Raspberry Pi Zero?

A camera module can also be used with a Raspberry Pi Zero, but a different ribbon is required. Make sure to buy a camera module where a ribbon corresponding to your Raspberry Pi model is provided (this one for example).

How do I know if the camera module is properly connected to the Raspberry Pi?

There is no detector or tool to know if a camera is correctly plugged in. Just follow the installation procedure and take a test photo to see if it works or if you encounter any errors.

Can I use a USB camera on my Raspberry Pi?

As a whole, Raspberry Pi supports most USB cameras, so it should be possible to use one instead of the camera module. Just plug it into a USB port and start a compatible application.

You can, for example, use it in OBS Studio, to record or stream the video.

Whenever you’re ready, here are other ways I can help you:

Test Your Raspberry Pi Level (Free): Not sure why everything takes so long on your Raspberry Pi? Take this free 3-minute assessment and see what’s causing the problems.

The RaspberryTips Community: Need help or want to discuss your Raspberry Pi projects with others who actually get it? Join the RaspberryTips Community and get access to private forums, exclusive lessons, and direct help.

Master your Raspberry Pi in 30 days: If you are looking for the best tips to become an expert on Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Learn useful Linux skills and practice multiple projects with step-by-step guides.

Master Python on Raspberry Pi: Create, understand, and improve any Python script for your Raspberry Pi. Learn the essentials step-by-step without losing time understanding useless concepts.

You can also find all my recommendations for tools and hardware on this page.