Karmmah's Raspberry Pi-Powered Pocket Camera Runs on Raspberry Pi OS Lite for Memory Efficiency
Building on an earlier design, this pocket-friendly camera uses a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W — making memory a scarce resource.
Pseudonymous maker "Karmmah" has revisited their Raspberry Pi-powered 3D-printed pocket camera project, updating the software so it runs correctly on the latest Debian Bullseye-based Raspberry Pi OS Lite — trimming down project's memory requirements.
"In the last few months I have finally come around to rewrite most of the [camera's] code," Karmmah explains of the upgrade. "Before it ran normal Raspberry [Pi] OS with the desktop, but I always wanted to move away from that. Now it runs the Lite OS and shows everything directly on screen instead of showing the desktop with a GUI program. It also runs a basic file server so you can view images taken over the local Wi-Fi network."
Inside the camera's 3D-printed housing is a Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 single-board computer, a Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Module connected to any one of a range of interchangeable lenses, and a Waveshare 1.44" TFT Display HAT that is visible at the rear. A physical shutter button captures images, while live previews are shown at the rear display at around 15 frames per second.
"I'm not very satisfied with the case yet because it has no backplate and no space for a battery but for now it works," Karmmah says. "It's automatic shooting mode only for now, has no way of changing settings and no menu system but that is something I want to add in the future. The top button next to the screen magnifies the preview to get better focus and the middle button halts the preview to use less processing power when not needed. The shutter button is the middle button on the joystick."
This latest incarnation is actually the third generation of Karmmah's Raspberry Pi-powered pocket camera. The original was based around a Raspberry Pi Zero, which while functional lacked the processing power for a smooth experience. In November 2021, the maker upgraded the build to use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W — offering considerably more performance in a shift described as making it "a lot nicer to use."
Source code for the project has been uploaded to GitHub under an unspecified open-source license; the latest revision of the 3D-printed housing had not yet been released at the time of writing, though Karmmah says it could be uploaded "if someone wants to print [it], but I will rework it in the future." More information is available in Karmmah's Reddit thread.