[Metalab] Cheap (Web)cams?

[leopold zyka]

Hi,
I have some usecases where I would need a lot of cheap webcams.

One application is 3D scanning. The project 3DScan uses 100 Raspberry Pi
cams:
http://www.pi3dscan.com/
Here you find the costs of the hardware:
http://www.pi3dscan.com/index.php/cost
So I am thinking how we could make this cheaper.

*MIP CSI2*
The raspberry PI cams and all the cams used in mobile phones don’t use an
USB interface. They use CSI-2 (*Camera* Serial Interface Type 2) with a 15
pin ZIF 15 socket.
A widely adopted, simple, high-speed protocol primarily intended for
point-to-point image and video transmission between cameras and host devices

https://www.mipi.org/specifications/csi-2


*USB Webcams?*
An alternative to the  would be to use USB-Webcams and don’t have 100
hundred decentralized CPUs (Raspberries). The challenge is you need a
multi-port USB interface like this:
https://plugable.com/products/usb3c-hub97xxx/

One problem with this approach is that there are no multi-port solutions
available.
Due to high demand the above product is unfortunately sold out indefinitely.
I assume that there would be also a bandwidth-problem on the PC side.

*Use Raspberry PI Zero?*
Using a Raspberry PI Zero would save some money:
*https://www.pi3dscan.com/index.php/blog2/45-raspberry-pi-zero-v2
<https://www.pi3dscan.com/index.php/blog2/45-raspberry-pi-zero-v2>*

https://electronics.semaf.at/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-W-Camera-Kit




*Use an ESP32-PICO? *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Jq0G17WgQ

Maybe it would not work with a cam which has more than 2 MPixels
resolution.



*Summary*
For me the best would be to have a module where the cam-module already sits
on the PCB. This would save connectors, cables (15pin!) and adaptors.
Also I would prefer to have a waterproof case for outdoor usage.

*Any Ideas???*
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