Sipeed’s $69 AI Camera Packs a Serious Punch

When starting from scratch, standing up a computer vision system for your projects can be very challenging. Everything from picking the right hardware and machine learning framework, to designing, training, and executing a model, requires a good deal of know-how and often a lot of trial and error. This takes more time and effort than most people are willing to put in, and the complexities lead to a lot of abandoned projects.

For most projects, computer vision is just one aspect of the build—not the main point. As such, anything that can help us to sidestep the difficulties and get on with bringing our ideas to life is a welcome addition to our toolkit. If you are having problems getting a computer vision project off the ground, then you might want to check out Sipeed’s MaixCAM2. It is a powerful little AI camera that does all of the heavy lifting for you, freeing you to focus on the higher-level functions.

The MaixCAM2 is designed as an open, maker-friendly alternative to both closed commercial cameras and complex DIY solutions built around the Raspberry Pi or OpenMV. It is powered by the Axera Tech AX630 AI SoC, which combines dual Arm Cortex-A53 cores, a real-time RISC-V controller, and a dedicated NPU capable of up to 3.2 TOPS at INT8 or 12.8 TOPS at INT4. Rather than chasing headline TOPS numbers, Sipeed emphasizes real-world performance, with YOLO-based benchmarks showing the MaixCAM2 delivering 10 to 20 times the inference speed of a Raspberry Pi 5 or OpenMV-N6, and performance comparable to a 33 TOPS Jetson Orin Nano in common object detection tasks.

Out of the box, the MaixCAM2 supports training-free vision models such as YoloWorld and Mixformerv2, allowing users to detect or track arbitrary objects using natural language descriptions or bounding boxes. On top of that, the camera can run vision-language models like Qwen3-VL-2B locally, enabling it to describe scenes, answer questions about what it sees, and interact in a more intelligent way—all while consuming around 2.5 watts of power.

The 4K version features a large 1/1.8-inch image sensor paired with an advanced AI-ISP, delivering low-light performance that rivals or even exceeds some commercial action cameras. A modular design with dual PMOD connectors allows easy expansion with thermal cameras or ToF depth sensors, which can even be fused with the visible camera for advanced multi-modal vision. Support for real-time super-resolution on thermal imagery and compatibility with telescope or microscope adapters further broaden its appeal.

With MaixPy and the MaixVision IDE programming environments, and more than 40 preinstalled AI apps, the MaixCAM2 lowers the barrier for beginners while still offering deep flexibility for advanced users. Rewards for this Kickstarter campaign start at $69, and shipping is expected to start in February 2026.