# Camera interface

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Camera_interface
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Camera_interface.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_interface
> Source revision: 1345692210
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Camera interface" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The **Camera Interface** block or **CAMIF** is the hardware block that [interfaces](/source/Interface_(computer_science)) with different [image sensor](/source/Image_sensor) interfaces and provides a [standard output](/source/Standard_output) that can be used for subsequent [image processing](/source/Image_processing).[1]

A typical Camera Interface would support at least a parallel interface although these days many camera interfaces are beginning to support the [Mobile Industry Processor Interface](/source/Mobile_Industry_Processor_Interface) (MIPI) [Camera Serial Interface](/source/Camera_Serial_Interface) (CSI) interface.

## Electrical connections

The camera interface's parallel interface consists of the following lines:

**8 to 12 bits parallel data line** These are parallel data lines that carry pixel data. The data transmitted on these lines change with every Pixel Clock (PCLK).

**Horizontal Sync (HSYNC)** This is a special signal that goes from the camera sensor or [ISP](/source/Image_processor) to the camera interface. An HSYNC indicates that one line of the frame is transmitted.

**Vertical Sync (VSYNC)** This signal is transmitted after the entire frame is transferred. This signal is often a way to indicate that one entire frame is transmitted.

**Pixel Clock (PCLK)** This is the pixel clock and it would change on every pixel.

NOTE: The above lines are all treated as input lines to the Camera Interface hardware.

## See also

- [Digital camera](/source/Digital_camera)

- [Digital photography](/source/Digital_photography)

- [Demosaicing](/source/Demosaicing)

- [Digital image processing](/source/Digital_image_processing)

- [Camera Serial Interface](/source/Camera_Serial_Interface) (CSI)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Neu, Thomas (2016). ["How unmatched impedance at the clock input of an RF ADC affects SNR and jitter"](https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slyt679/slyt679.pdf) (PDF). *Analog Applications Journal*. Texas Instruments.

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Camera interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_interface) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_interface?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.