Hardware & cameraFreeRaspberry Pi OS

rpicam-apps

The official command-line camera tools for Camera Module 3, HQ Camera and more: previews, photos, video and time-lapse.

What you use it for

  • Test a camera in seconds
  • Record video for drones and security cams
  • Time-lapses and long exposures

Commands

List cameras
rpicam-hello --list-cameras
Take a photo
rpicam-still -o photo.jpg
Record 10 seconds of video
rpicam-vid -t 10000 -o clip.h264
Time-lapse every 5 s for 1 h
rpicam-still -t 3600000 --timelapse 5000 -o img%04d.jpg

Pro tips

  • These replaced the old raspistill/raspivid commands — older tutorials use the legacy names.
  • Add --width and --height to save space and CPU.