libcamera – Complete Presentation

Introduction to libcamera

libcamera is an open-source Linux camera stack developed to provide support for complex camera systems found in embedded and mobile devices. It replaces proprietary vendor solutions by offering a standardized framework and API for camera handling, image capture, and stream management.

Goals & Purpose

libcamera aims to:

Enable device-independent camera control.
Expose a uniform API for camera applications.
Handle the ISP pipeline, sensor tuning, and format negotiation.
Support multi-camera and stereo configurations.

Architecture

libcamera consists of the following components:

Component	Description
`CameraManager`	Handles camera detection and global camera access control.
`Camera`	Represents a single physical or logical camera device.
`PipelineHandler`	Encapsulates hardware-specific logic, tuning, and streaming.
`FrameBuffer`	Stores captured frame data.
`Controls API`	Handles setting and querying camera controls like exposure, gain, etc.

Installation (Debian/RPi)


sudo apt update
sudo apt install libcamera-apps libcamera-dev libcamera0

Basic CLI Tools

libcamera comes with built-in command-line tools:

libcamera-hello — simple preview test.
libcamera-jpeg — capture and save JPEGs.
libcamera-still — for high-resolution stills.
libcamera-vid — record video to file.
libcamera-raw — raw frame output.


libcamera-still -o image.jpg
libcamera-vid -t 10000 -o video.h264

Using libcamera in C++


#include <libcamera/libcamera.h>

int main() {
	libcamera::CameraManager cm;
	cm.start();
	auto cameras = cm.cameras();
	for (auto &cam : cameras) {
		std::cout << "Found camera: " << cam->id() << std::endl;
	}
	cm.stop();
	return 0;
}

Note: Link against -lcamera when compiling.

Supported Platforms

Device	Status	Notes
Raspberry Pi 4/5	✔ Full	Uses BCM ISP pipeline handler
RK3399 / Rockchip	✔ Partial	Requires community patches
Generic V4L2 devices	✔ Basic	No ISP or control tuning

libcamera vs V4L2

Feature	libcamera	V4L2
Hardware Abstraction	✔	✘
Multi-Cam Support	✔	✘
User API	Modern C++	C, ioctl-heavy
Sensor Tuning	✔	✘

Development Tips


# Build from source
git clone https://git.libcamera.org/libcamera/libcamera.git
cd libcamera
meson build
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install

Requires: meson, ninja, libudev-dev, python3-yaml

libcamera Overview