Arducam B0268 16MP IMX298 Wide Angle USB Camera w/ M12 Lens

The Arducam B0268 is fully USB Video Class (UVC) compliant, providing native plug-and-play support without requiring additional drivers on Windows 10/11, Linux (using standard V4L2 drivers), and macOS. Simply connect the included USB cable to a free port, and the system will recognize it as a standard video capture device, ready for use with applications like OBS, Zoom, OpenCV, or custom Python scripts.

Yes, the module features a standard M12 lens mount, allowing you to unscrew the included 105° wide-angle lens and replace it with other M12-mount lenses of different focal lengths or fields of view. This is useful for switching between wide-angle surveillance and telephoto machine vision tasks. Ensure any replacement lens is compatible with the 1/2.8" sensor size to avoid vignetting.

The sensor's native resolution is 16MP (4656x3496), but for video streaming, the maximum practical frame rate at full resolution is around 10 fps due to USB 2.0 bandwidth limits. For smoother video, you can lower the resolution; the module supports up to 30 frames per second at 1080p (1920x1080) using the compressed MJPG format, which is ideal for real-time conferencing or live monitoring applications.

Once connected, the camera appears as a standard video device (e.g., /dev/video0 on Linux). In OpenCV, use cv2.VideoCapture(0) to access the stream. You can set properties like resolution and format via OpenCV's cap.set() function. For advanced control over parameters like exposure or white balance, you may need to use v4l2-ctl commands on Linux or a dedicated UVC control library, as the module exposes standard UVC extension units.