Using Raspberry Pi camera (NOIR) and Python to build a home surveillance camera – Part 1 of 4 : basics

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Code and images for using PiCam and Python to snap pictures after adjusting the brightness ↓

from picamera import PiCamera
import time

camera = PiCamera()
#rotate camera to the correct orientation
camera.rotation = 180

#taking 3 pics using for loop
#each pic have difference brightness
for i in range (3):
    camera.brightness = (i+1)*30
    camera.capture('/home/pi/Desktop/image%s.jpg' %(i+1))
    time.sleep(1)

#set back camera to original brightness
camera.brightness = 50 
camera.capture('/home/pi/Desktop/imageNormalBrightness.jpg' )
  • brightness = 30
  • brightness = 60
  • brightness = 90
  • brightness = 50 (default brightness)

To record 30s video and save to desktop using date and time as filename ↓

from picamera import PiCamera
from time import sleep
import datetime

date = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%d-%m-%Y_%H:%M:%S")

camera = PiCamera()

#camera.start_preview()
#sleep(5)
#camera.stop_preview()
camera.rotation = 180
camera.start_preview()
camera.start_recording('/home/pi/Desktop/'+date+'.h264')
sleep(30)
camera.stop_recording()
camera.stop_preview()