Jeffrey Edgett's Camera Zero Is a 3D-Printed, Raspberry Pi Zero-Powered Screen-Free Camera

Maker Jeffrey Edgett has unveiled Camera Zero, an all-in-one device that combines a Raspberry Pi Zero and an Arducam to create a screen-free compact camera controlled with a trackball.

"This is an actively-cooled compact camera housing for a Raspberry Pi Zero WH, Pimoroni Trackball, an Arducam High Quality Camera kit, as well as an Adafruit 16-pixel RGBW Neopixel ring light," Edgett writes of the resulting device — "a neat little screenless camera that can be controlled with your thumb."

Designed for compactness, yet featuring a 40mm fan for active cooling of the internal electronics, the 3D-printed housing includes a mount for a tripod on the base. The front offers mounting for CCTV-style camera lenses, and the ring light — which can be adjusted to modify its color — surrounds the lens to provide illumination on the targeted scene.

The trackball sits on the side of the device, allowing for video and photo capturing to be triggered with a thumb-press while scrolling allows for adjustment of shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, bracketing, as well as red, green, blue, and white lighting levels for the ring light.

For those who would prefer to control the camera remotely, Edgett's Camera Remote can be installed and take over from the trackball local control to offer a browser-based interface to the camera over the Raspberry Pi Zero's Wi-Fi network connection.

Software for the camera has been published to Edgett's GitHub repository, while STL files for printing the housing are available under a Creative Commons Attribution license on Thingiverse. For anyone looking for something more beefy, Edgett has also designed a larger cine-style housing for a full-size Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Module.