How to connect the Raspberry Pi Camera Module to Raspberry Pi 2 or Raspberry Pi 3

Since the Raspberry Pi camera module connects to most of the recent Raspberry Pi boards via the camera serial interface (CSI), the Raspberry Pi camera module is an ideal peripheral for implementing Raspberry Pi based projects that require image capturing.

This post documents how to connect a Raspberry Pi camera module to a Raspberry Pi 3.

Parts to be assembled together

Raspberry Pi Camera Module Flex Cable and Raspberry Pi 3 board

The following is the list of parts that are used for the purpose of this post:

The instructions listed in this post are applicable to a Raspberry Pi 2 board with any of the following Raspberry Pi Cameras:

Connecting the Flex cable to the Raspberry Pi Camera Module

To connect the Flex cable to the Raspberry Pi Camera Module, we first pull the black connector downwards:

Direction to loosen clip on Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1

A loosened camera connector will look like the following:

Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1 with loosened connector

With the cable connector loosened, we then insert the Flex cable and push up the camera connector to fasten the Flex cable to the camera module:

Direction to fasten connector on Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1 with Flex cable

A fastened camera connector with Flex cable looks like this:

Raspberry Pi Camera Module v1 with Flex cable and fastened connector

Connecting the other end of the Flex cable to the CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board

Once we had connected the Flex cable to the Raspberry Pi Camera module, we can proceed to connect the other end of the Flex cable to the CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board.

The following picture highlights the CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board which we need to connect the Flex cable to:

The CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board

We first loosen the CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board:

Direction to loosen Camera connector on Raspberry Pi 3 board

A loosen CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board will look like the following:
Raspberry Pi 3 board with CSI connector loosened

With the CSI connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 loosened, insert the Flex cable into the connector and push down the connector clip:

Direction to fasten CSI connector on Raspberry Pi 3 board with Flex cable

A fastened CSI connector with Flex cable looks like this:

Raspberry Pi 3 board with Flex cable and fastened CSI connector

About Clivant

Clivant a.k.a Chai Heng enjoys composing software and building systems to serve people. He owns techcoil.com and hopes that whatever he had written and built so far had benefited people. All views expressed belongs to him and are not representative of the company that he works/worked for.