[HOW-TO] Camera Flash

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
20/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
python
Domain
embedded-iot

Research direction

The issue names no repository files or tests; start by reviewing the linked issues, forum discussions, and the picamera flash recipe. Define whether the expected outcome is usage guidance, examples, or implementation support, and document a practical flash workflow only after the scope is agreed.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Describe what it is that you want to accomplish
Hey, I want to build a mobile camera.

After allowing per tuning file cranking up the range for AnalogueGain to 16 for the imx708 the shutter speed got on the faster side. It helps to achieve sharp images if hand held.

But if it is getting darker or indoors, a flash could be useful to get decent lit sharp captures.

I think about a LED or a speedlite to add to the camera.

  • For speedlite, it might be hard to get the right timing and it's unclear to me how to deal with the AGC algorithms when there is just a speedlite exposing one frame instead of a more permanent light.
  • For LED the light usually cannot be as bright as with the speedlite, but I think it would be OK to tinker around with it in the beginning.

My questions:

  • Which is the current status in libcamera/picamera2 to use a flash? Are there any examples/best practice since it is not part of libcamera itself (yet)? Best I could find so far is maybe use this implementation to control the actual flash? https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=368437. Adding dtparam=cam1_sync=24 to config.txt seems to have no effect on RPI5.
  • Specifically how to implement something like light metering for example based on 1 test frame illuminated vs 1 frame not illuminated to adjust the camera algorithms?

Additional context
For reference, I found these related issues.

Dominant language
Python
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