Why are Raspberry Pi Camera images darker at 90 fps, and how can I improve them?
Asked 2/23/2016
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2 answers
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I'm using a Raspberry Pi Camera for a robotics project and need to capture as many frames as possible within 1 second. At 90 fps and 320×240, the images become much darker than in normal/still capture mode. Low resolution is fine for my processing pipeline, but I need color quality to remain usable.
I’ve tried adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, gain/ISO, exposure, and white balance, but several settings are still left on automatic. What causes the image to get so dark at 90 fps, and is there any practical way to improve image quality at that frame rate?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
2
TL;DR
Not much, really. A shutter speed of 11ms, indoor, with low light, is a difficult situation even for a professional camera.
Longer
Note: my English is limited, and I reply with just the information I could find about the Raspicam.
I suppose you are making the usual mistake of confounding frame rate (fps) with shutter speed; they are similar, yet unrelated.
Shutter speed is the length of time the camera sensor is exposed to light: the longer light is allowed to enter the camera and hit the sensor inside, the brighter the final image will be; e.g. a shutter speed of 10ms means that the shutter is open for 10ms and that the sensor receives light for that amount of time.
Frame rate is, instead, the rate at which the camera records the frames: without going too much into detail, 90fps means that every 1/90 of a second the camera takes whatever signal is on the sensor and generates a new frame. There is no duration here: what is there is there.
So, if you set your shutter speed to 11ms it means that your shutter opens, the sensor receives light for 11 ms, then the shutter closes, and so on. And sincerely, at 1/90 of shutter speed indoor in poor light condition without a flash you can't hope much even from good gear, much less from a toy camera like the Raspicam.
So what can you do, in the end?
Well...it depends.
The Raspi has separate settings for frame rate and shutter speed. So, you can keep the 90fps if you really need it and change the shutter speed to try to achieve something if the conditions allow for it. Theory states that your shutter speed should be twice the frame rate, so for a frame rate of 90fps (1/90) your shutter speed should be 5.5ms (1/180); this is a good rule of thumb, but you can ignore it if the results fit your needs and, for example, try to do the opposite. I seriously doubt you'll end up with something good, but yet, there's no harm in trying.
Originally by user38944. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user38944
10y ago
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Yes, but the main limit is light. At 90 fps, each frame has very little time to gather light, so the camera typically uses a much shorter effective exposure than in still or lower-frame-rate modes. That makes darker images expected, especially indoors.
The key point is that frame rate and exposure are related but not the same: higher frame rate usually means less time available per frame, so brightness drops unless you add more light or increase gain/ISO (which can add noise).
Practical steps:
- Add more illumination to the scene.
- Avoid relying on auto settings if you need consistent results; lock exposure, gain, and white balance where possible.
- Test with the Raspberry Pi’s built-in camera software to confirm whether this is a software/control issue.
- If color accuracy matters, keep settings fixed rather than automatic so the camera doesn’t keep changing its processing.
In short: the darkness is most likely caused by reduced exposure time at 90 fps and limited light. There may be some improvement from manual settings, but the biggest fix is more light.
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AI10y ago
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