Arducam IMX290 1080p Day/Night Ultra Low Light MIPI Camera for Raspberry Pi

Starlight-grade sensitivity pulls usable 1080p video out of scenes that leave ordinary Raspberry Pi cameras empty. A Sony STARVIS IMX290 sensor pairs 2.9 µm pixels with a fast F1.6 lens to gather far more light per frame than the stock modules, so dusk, moonlight and dimly lit interiors stay readable instead of dissolving into noise.

Low light is where most maker camera projects come apart. Small sensors and slow lenses force long exposures that smear anything moving, then bury what's left under noise. A larger 1/2.8″ optical format, generous pixels and an F1.6 aperture solve it optically — more photons arrive in the first place, so exposures stay short enough to keep moving subjects sharp.

It presents as a native Raspberry Pi camera over MIPI CSI-2, with no custom kernel and no firmware flashing. libcamera and Picamera2 detect it directly on Bullseye, Bookworm and Trixie, and both ribbon cables are supplied — 15-pin for full-size boards, 15-to-22-pin for the fine-pitch connectors on Raspberry Pi 5 and Zero.

Day and night switching is under your control via a mechanical IR-cut filter, and the method depends on your board: Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 set the filter with the onboard DIP switch, while Raspberry Pi 3 and earlier platforms can drive it from GPIO for scripted changeover. There are no onboard infrared LEDs — this module works from available ambient light rather than supplying its own, so add a separate IR illuminator if you need to see in total darkness.

Features

• Resolves detail in near-darkness where standard modules give up, using Sony's STARVIS back-illuminated IMX290 sensor with 2.9 µm pixels on a 1/2.8″ format
• Keeps exposures short in dim scenes thanks to an F1.6 aperture on a 3.98 mm M12 lens, reducing motion blur without pushing gain and noise
• Covers a whole room or yard from one position with a 102° diagonal field of view (86° horizontal, 46° vertical)
• Streams 1920×1080 at 60 fps over MIPI CSI-2, fast enough for live monitoring as well as recording
• Outputs RAW10/RAW12 so you can run your own tone mapping, ISP tuning or computer-vision pipeline on unprocessed data
• Switches between colour daylight and infrared-sensitive night imaging with a mechanical IR-cut filter — DIP switch on Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, GPIO-driven on Raspberry Pi 3 and earlier
• Accepts alternative optics through its M12×P0.5 lens mount when 102° isn't the framing you need
• Draws just 0.9 W at 3.3 V on a compact 32×32 mm board, leaving headroom in battery-powered and enclosed builds
• Ships with both ribbon cables needed to reach any current Raspberry Pi connector, so there's no second order to place

Specifications

Resources

• Arducam IMX290 native camera quick start guide
• B0647 datasheet (PDF)

What's included

• 1x Arducam 2MP ultra low light IR-cut switch MIPI camera module
• 1x 15 cm 15-to-22-pin FPC cable
• 1x 15 cm 15-to-15-pin FPC cable