ELP-USBFHD06H-L36

So first off, when I first started playing around with this camera. I couldn't figure out how to access the h264 video feed using ffmpeg. I was using /dev/video0 and all I could get was mjpeg and yuv. Then I saw I had two video devices in my list. You need to use video1 (could be different for you) to access the h264 stream. Surprised how well this works in low light too!

Camera with sony sensor working good with night time replace len.

The board the camera is attached to is 1.5" on each side and has four mount holes. You'll need posts with offset of at least .5" because of the cable jack. Alternately the assembly can be slid in a DIY printed box - there's 3mm of space on all sides of the board. Picture quality is what's expected from 1080p. Crisp, looks good, Even in typical office lighting it's well exposed. On to the annoying part... The lens is glued to the threaded mount. This locks the focus - it's preset to around four feet. Too far for a webcam, too close for security. I carefully removed the glue. The lens can then be moved freely. There's enough tension to keep it from moving or rattling around. With the focus freed up, this will focus as close as under an inch and as far as infinity. The closer the focus, the shallower the depth of field. If you look at the 3D printed snail, it's 1" away from the camera. DOF is around 3". If focused to around 5 feet, the DOF looks to be several feet. It's has a nice field of view. At 12" up, you can see approx. 26" across. This makes it ideal for vision in a LASER engraver or 3D printer housing - that's where I plan to use it.

This camera plugged into and worked in seconds in Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu and Win10. In all three cases I used VLC to do the capture. The image is good quality (1080p). In my first image you can see text on a 4" x 9" brochure viewed from one foot away on axis is quite readable. My second shot shows how well this cam works in low light. I set it up in my electronics room with light coming only from the backlight on my monitor. I pointed the cam straight up at the ceiling nine feet above my desktop. No kidding, the cam can see better than I can in that setting. I'm impressed it's picking up the yellow insulation in color in that setting. It's also picking up the infrared lights off a net cam and status lights on POE switches mounted on the ceiling. Focus: Some others have noted that the lens is glued in place. It is. With patience and a dental tool you should be able to pick the glue off pretty quickly (but carefully). I'm not sure what the glue is but it's something other than hot melt. But before you go playing with the lens and glue, be sure to look closely at my brochure shot. The text on it is readable from a foot away. You may not need to play with the focus. It depends on your application. Finally, when you point the cam across the room, objects are still clearly identifiable on the opposite side. There's a certain amount of barrel distortion, but you have to expect that with the lens on this camera. Most likely this cam will wind up being paired with a Raspberry Pi Zero W (2 I hope) and battery powered so I can use it in mobile applications. I have no reason to doubt it will work well in that case. I hope the price comes down a bit.

Really impressed with this camera. It is well made, board is done well. Of course it is just a module, so you will need to come up with your own way to mount it, or your own enclosure. It's kind of a kit. I like that part though, you can set it up how you want and as they say, you can embed it. Plugged it into my Windows 10 PC and in seconds it's ready to use. Opened the windows camera program and the video started right up. It is plug in play, least it was for me. Video looks pretty good, looks like 1080P to me, not bad at all. What really impressed me was the low light auto. I pointed it around my basement, with only a couple lights on and when I moved it to a darker area, it brightened right up. Not saying it will be like night vision, but it does work very well. Nothing but good to say. Price is good as well. Gladly recommend!

I set up a slew of cameras like this on my 3D printing area and engraving area so I could not only see progress but use a program I wrote to make sure my engravings were centered on the products. This camera was easy to mount on the laser head for my engraver and I use it with a crosshair to line up the job. It is easily recognized by my mini computers and I have had no issues with it so far. You can also use this on an R-Pi and use it as a UAV or robot camera. It has a small form factor so it will work in a lot of areas.

I typically use the Arducam cameras for any project I have going on, and they’ve worked pretty well up to this point. I made the mistake of picking up this camera, and now I’m going to have a tough time going back to the Arducam units, particularly for anything needing low light recording. The sensor handles low light conditions really, really well, and the picture is very clear. I was able to attach it, and after a few configuration tweaks, it was up and running. The lens was glued in place, and wasn’t adjustable until I removed the glue - I’m not completely sure why they would fix the focus point for a camera unit like this, but whatever. Just be careful and take your time when you remove it from yours. I hope this was helpful - it’s really easy to work with and integrate into a project, and the picture and performance is decidedly an upgrade from the standard $10 cameras. With the price point being where it is, it might not be the way to go for every project, but if video matters, I’d go with this.