Arducam 12MP HQ Camera for Raspberry Pi, IMX477 High Sensitivity CMOS with CS-Mount Lens, Automatic IR-Cut Switching All-Day Image, Compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, Pi 3/3B+, and Pi Zero 2W

I love this thing! Easy to setup, nice and small. I plan on printing a how to mount it and another Raspberry Pi to my telescope.

The IR-Cut sensor is too sensitive, with the on and off thresholds very close together resulting in it "bouncing" quickly back and forth at dusk. In addition, it is very hard to find a focus and aperture setting that accomodates both daylight and IR lighting well which also undermines the point of automatic switching. It seems like the switching can be unplugged however, so I might try that to "lock" it into one mode or the other. Also note that you probably want a Pi 5 for this if you plan on keeping the footage at all - hardware encoders on Pi's can work, but give a very blocky compression. Software encoding is much better quality, but really pushes Pi CPUs on earlier models. But, this does at least give some way to optionally filter IR light on a Raspberry Pi compatible camera.

* Camera works. * Doesn't have IR illuminator built in (like an older 5MP version does). Without something to provide IR light the image is just black in IR mode at night. If you want a ready solution, you may want to get the older 5MP one. * Needed additional drivers (or configuration?) from manufacturer website (amazon doesn't allow external links but Google can get you to a thread called "All white images on B0272 IMX477 autofocus on Bookworm"). * Automatic IR cut works, but has an audible click (e.g. gently tap your fingernail on a hard desk). * Automatic IR cut needs some debouncing. At a certain time of day it just flips back and forth for a couple of minutes. * Afaik, there doesn't appear to be a good ready-made solution available for mounting this camera. You may need to 3D print something or build something.

Good camera. The command rpocam-still has many options to get the picture exactly the way you need it. The focus is sensitive. The ir sensor got stuck on mine and I couldn't get it to take a normal picture for several days and then somehow it got unstuck. I have a replacement now and so far so good.

Overpriced and take so much processing since it is raw data. Does not have ISP.