PropCAM Board versus Raspberry Pi Camera Board

George Sutton

Does the PropCAM have any similarity at all to the Raspberry Pi Camera Board, other than being a camera? What does the PropCAM do that the other does not do?

Mike Green

There's really no similarity other than both being cameras. The Raspberry Pi camera is much like what you'd find in a smartphone or tablet. The PropCAM is specifically designed for use with the Propeller with its limited RAM. It's black & white only and low resolution (128x96) to minimize memory requirements. The resolution is high enough for it to be usable for simple computer vision applications. The low resolution allows for wireless transmission over low bandwidth channels with no compression or only simple compression. The Raspberry Pi runs Linux and can run lots of open-source image processing software. It also can interface to a fairly high resolution color display.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

It's also likely that the RasPi camera uses a rolling shutter; IOW the pixel rows are exposed, beginning as each is read out, rather than all simultaneously. This can lead to motion artifacts:



The PropCAM's sensor exposes all pixels at the same time.

-Phil

George Sutton

Thank you, Mike and Phil. Very helpful information and much appreciated.