Cameras

Cameras are important for many payload use cases, including mapping and surveying, surveillance, search & rescue, crop health and pest detection, and so on. They are commonly mounted on a gimbal that can provide camera stabilisation, point tracking, and movement independent of the hosting vehicle.

Camera Types

PX4 integrates with three types of cameras:

• MAVLink cameras that support the Camera Protocol v2 (RECOMMENDED).
• Simple MAVLink cameras that support the older Camera Protocol v1.
• Cameras attached to flight controller outputs, which are controlled using the Camera Protocol v1.

MAVLink cameras are recommended because they provide the broadest access to camera features using a simple and consistent command/message set. If a camera does not support this prototol, a camera manager running on a companion computer can be used to interface between MAVLink and the camera's native protocol.

See Also

• Gimbal (Camera Mount)
• Camera Integration/Architecture (PX4 Developers)