Adafruit RasPi Camera Board Case alignment & focus issue

Hi,
I purchased a RasPi V2 camera & an Adafruit RasPi Camera Board Case with 1/4 Tripod Mount.
Taking a picture without the case is clearer than with the case. I am a little surprised as the poorer quality is in the background and foreground, but mainly in the foreground when comparing both shots, the differences seem more noticeable on my monitor that the photos.

I believe the problem to be a misalignment of the centre of the lens and the camera clear cover. The lens should have an unobstructed clear view of the world, but the misalignment seems to be an issue with a slight off-centre of the lens to the case hole. The lens has a view, but it is slightly off-centre and I get slightly blurry image, that’s what I wanted to avoid with V2 camera in a case.

So I checked;

  1. the position of the camera in the case? Was it sitting and pushed down on the 4 mounting pins? Yes
  2. the clear cover position on the black base, was it clip in position? Yes Ok
  3. Is the position of the camera the same when taking the 2 the photos for cover on, cover off? Yes
  4. Was the same software commands issued to take the photos? Yes.
  5. Plastic cover film removed from camera lens? , Yes
  6. Thumb print on face of lens? No. Did several photos tests, same photo quality.

Closer inspection revealed the centre of the camera is not exactly centered to the clear plastic cover. There is about 0.75mm misalignment and this maybe causing some of the poorer image. Its hard to adjust this misalignment.

I used a macro camera trying to directly take a picture, but had to use a flash, but you can see the lens is off centre while I try and take photo directly and centred overhead.

Anyone else had the problem with case and misalignment and focus?

Regards.

Hi Charles,

Here is an official response from Adafruit:

“the Pi Camera v2 (8 Megapixel) is just a bit thicker than the original, which might cause the camera to press against the case and cause blurry images, depending on how it is focused. The easiest way to fix is remove the sticky-rubber spacer that is between the camera module and PCB. Gently remove the camera module from the PCB, peel off the spacer, and re-plug the camera module. Problem solved!”

We’ve updated our product page to reflect this

Thanks very much for the quick response, I’ll give it a go this evening.

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