Adafruit PiCowbell Camera Breakout - 120 Degree Low Distortion

The Adafruit PiCowbell OV5640 Camera Breakout adds a 5-megapixel camera with a 120-degree low-distortion wide-angle lens to your Raspberry Pi Pico or Pico W. Capture raw RGB images for analysis or use the OV5640's built-in JPEG encoding to save photos to a microSD card or upload them to the cloud.

The RP2040's fast PIO peripheral handles the 8-bit parallel DVP camera interface, while the onboard 16 MHz oscillator provides the required clock signal. A microSD card slot, shutter button, reset button, and STEMMA QT connector are all included on board, with 6 GPIO pins still available after all connections.

Key Features

• OV5640 5MP Camera – 120-degree low-distortion wide-angle lens, fixed infinite focus
• 8-bit DVP Interface – Uses RP2040 PIO for fast parallel data capture (GPIO 0–14)
• MicroSD Card Slot – SPI on GPIO 16–19, optional card detect on GPIO 15
• Shutter Button – Dedicated button on GPIO 22
• STEMMA QT / Qwiic – I2C connector on GPIO 4/5 for additional sensors
• 16 MHz Onboard Oscillator – Generates XClock for the camera module
• Reset Button – Quick restart access

Pin Assignments

• Camera – VSync (0), PWDN (1), HSync (2), PCLK (3), SDA/SCL (4/5), D0–D7 (6–13), Reset (14)
• MicroSD – SPI (16, 18, 19), CS (17), Detect (15)
• Shutter – GPIO 22

Ideal For

• Image capture and analysis with Raspberry Pi Pico
• Time-lapse photography with microSD storage
• Computer vision and image processing projects
• IoT camera applications with Pico W

Package Contents

• 1× PiCowbell Camera Breakout PCB (assembled)
• 1× OV5640 Camera Sensor with 120-degree lens
• 2× 20-pin header strips (soldering required)