Arducam Mini Module Camera Shield 5MP Plus OV5642 Camera Module for Arduino UNO Mega2560 Board

UPDATE 11/29/2021 3 cameras deployed so far on remote mountain tops. They are working consistently, delivering snapshots at 640x480 every 5 minutes. Original Review So now that I've worked on this for awhile, it's time for the review. My reactions to this camera have veered from a single star to the 5 I'm giving it now. TLDR: Camera is great, IF you put the time in. I specifically chose this camera since I needed something that would sip power (for solar/remote applications), interface easily with small MCUs, and take pictures of at least 1600x1200 resolution. The camera's documentation is challenging, but accessible. The libraries are not clean or designed for the beginner, and in some cases cause corruption themselves. The camera is susceptible to interference, so short cables, faulty and cheap breadboards, and other things of that nature will give unexpected results. Even in the best case scenarios, the camera is a bit inconsistent, so your code needs to account for that. Sometimes when you ask the camera to snap a picture, it'll work somewhere between the first to 5th try. After heavy modification of some of their example sketches, isolating and correcting sources of interference, and building enough redundancy in the code, this camera is consistently snapping pictures and uploading via cellular to a server, without the use of an SD card. The camera's large 8MB buffer is extremely useful in this regard. Will this camera work out of the box. No, it will not. Not without some work put in. This camera is for the amateur electronic hobbyist, not for the regular consumer or for commercial applications. Have fun!

good photo quality, not sure about video

I got both the 2mp & 5mp cameras and the mating shield. The 2mp camera keeps coming up with an error saying it can't find the 5mp camera. I have got images from the 5mp camera up to 1600x1200 but above that resolution no valid images were saved. I have had no success with video. Help seems to elude me on both the Robotshop and ArduCAM websites.

I have no idea how to make it work consistently. At some point, it works fine but most of times, it does not take a picture and it shows a blank picture or a crashed image (similar to the one in another review with one star). Any help would be very appreciated. -----------[Revised]------------ I have to admit that there is no issue of the camera itself. Its connectivity to Photon should be very tight. Otherwise, you will get the same result as mine. I will leave the picture as a reference.

The camera itself works fine but some things to note, at least for use with an ESP8266. 1. Use 5v, even though 3v3 is accepted. I notice much better image quality at 5v. 2. I couldn't upload a sketch with the camera attached. I have to pull the 5v wire, upload the sketch, then re attach the wire on startup. 3. Dont expect to get the full output speed described in specs with a microcontroller. It takes almost 6 seconds to get a single 5MP frame using the ESP. (~200k jpg) Overall a great camera, just wish I could upload sketches with it attached.