PiCamera is a python library used to control the Raspberry Pi Camera Module for python 2.7 or python 3.2 and above.

The Rapsberry Pi Camera Module allows you to take 5 mega pixel photos, HD video and do time-lapse photography all controlled via the command line using the utilities Raspistill and Raspivid.

Dave Hughes has created a python library called picamera allowing you to be more creative on how you can use the Raspberry Pi Camera Module. The picamera library controls the RPI camera directly but gives you access to the same features found in the Raspistill and Raspivid utilities and more such as taking a still image at the same time as recording video.

Example of commands

picamera.PiCamera.start_preview()picamera.PiCamera.resolution =(1920, 1024)picamera.PiCamera.capture('image.jpg')picamera.PiCamera.exposure_mode = 'spotlight'

Installation

The library can be installed from within Raspbian with the command

for python 2.7+

 sudo apt-get install python-picamera

for python 3.2+

 sudo apt-get install python3-picamera

 More information can be found at picamera.readthedocs.org