Updated £4 Raspberry Pi Zero Adds Camera Connector

A new version of the £4 Raspberry Pi Zero is now available with a camera connector with the promise that “thousands” would be made every day to meet demand for the cheapest version of the pocket-sized computer.

The original model was released in November and was given away with MagPi magazine, a Raspberry Pi enthusiast publication. Every copy of the magazine was sold 24 hours.

“When we launched Raspberry Pi Zero last November, it’s fair to say we were blindsided by the level of demand,” said Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi Foundation. “We immediately sold every copy of MagPi issue 40 and every Zero in stock at our distributors; and every time a new batch of Zeros came through from the factory they’d sell out in minutes.

Raspberry Pi Zero

“To complicate matters, Zero then had to compete for factory space with Raspberry Pi 3, which was ramping for launch at the end of February. Happily, [we were] able to take advantage of the resulting production hiatus to add the most frequently demanded “missing” feature to Zero: a camera connector.”

The specifications of the updated edition are identical to its predecessor aside from the addition of the new port, although there have been some cosmetic alternations.

The Raspberry Pi Zero is powered by a 1GHz Broadcom BCM2835 processor and 512MB of RAM and has MicroSD, mini-HDMI and micro USB connectors for data and power.

A camera is connected using a custom six inch adapter cable but users must have the latest version of Raspbian OS installed.

The official camera module for the Raspberry Pi, the Pi Camera V2, was recently refreshed with an upgraded eight megapixel sensor and costs $25.

The Raspberry Pi 3 was released on the fourth anniversary of the launch of the original device, adding integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a more powerful processor. So far, eight million units have been sold to educational institutions, hobbyists and businesses. It is hoped the additional connectivity will boost the popularity of the computer for IoT applications.

A range of official and unofficial accessories, such as cases, screens and hard drives, have been released since the original Raspberry Pi debuted in 2012.

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