Raspberry Pi Wide Angle Lens Comparison

A few months ago the Raspberry Pi HQ camera module was released. 12MP resolution, 1/2 inch (8mm) sensor, all in all: sounds ok. The interesting thing: you can change the lenses. The mount is apparently called a CS-Mount and is simply a screw thread. (Modern) CS lenses however are mostly CCTV/surveillance camera lenses and that’s a rather suspicious market if you want to go shopping (lots of moderately shady web shops).
There are two official lenses sold alongside the camera module, a 16mm telephoto-lens and a 6mm wide-angle one. Given that the module has a 1/2 inch sensor, the multiplication factor to compare to full-frame cameras would be 5.4, so the 6mm lens is equivalent to focal length of 32.4mm on a regular camera… Maybe there is something that’s a bit more … actually wide-angle?

All three lenses All three lenses

Let’s compare three lenses:

Official 6mm Lens

Inexpensive and easy to purchase. The aperture can be set manually, but there are no markings (so it’s a guessing game)

Official wide angle lens Official wide angle lens example photo


Arecont Vision CS-Mount 4.0mm F1.8 Lens

Available at B&H-photo, rather pricey but small.

Arecont 4mm lens Arecont 4mm lens example photo


No-name 3.2mm F2 Lens

Available at several online shops with various brandings or directly from Aliexpress.
Very long barrel, wide field of view. Nice crisp and sharp image without a lot of chromatic abberations. Distortion is very visible.

No-name 3.2mm lens No-name 3.2mm lens example photo


Side by side:

side by side comparison (100% crop, Official Wide Angle | Arecont 4mm | No-name 3.2mm)