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Picamera2

  • Software
  • Perception
  • Driver or SDK

Picamera2 is a Python library for controlling Raspberry Pi cameras through the libcamera stack, replacing the older Picamera library. It offers an easy-to-use Python API.

Made by Raspberry Pi, United Kingdom (checked on github.com/raspberrypi (opens in a new tab)).

Source on GitHub: github.com/raspberrypi/picamera2 (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 5e2a35d (opens in a new tab).

Licenses

Code
BSD-2-Clause (opens in a new tab)

Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-2-Clause) at commit 5e2a35d (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.

Commercial use
Yes

What it does

  • Replaces the legacy Picamera Python interface with a libcamera-based implementation.
  • Provides an easy-to-use Python API for camera control.
  • Documentation, many examples, Qt application examples, and an automated test suite are available in separate repositories.
  • Still in beta, with work focused on bugs, stability, support, examples, documentation and keeping up with libcamera development.
  • Can be installed via apt, which is recommended to match versions with libcamera, or via pip.
  • Development for upcoming releases happens on the "next" branch, while "main" matches the released version.

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 5e2a35d.

Getting started

Difficulty
Beginner
Hardware it needs, as the project states it
Runs on Raspberry Pi boards, from the Pi Zero upward, with performance varying on less powerful devices; requires Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye or later (32 or 64-bit) with the legacy camera stack disabled.

Maintenance

Status
Active: a commit in the last 90 days
Newest commit
12 Oct 2026 on main
Latest release
Release 0.3.38 (12 Oct 2026)

Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.

Links

Robots on Robotheca that use it

No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.

Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.