On May 16, Raspberry Pi Founder Eben Upton announced that the company would be launching a camera connector for Raspberry Pi Zero, which debuted back in November 2015. Upton specified that the company discovered that the same fine-pitch FPC connector that is used on its Compute Module Development Kit fits perfectly onto the right side of the Zero's board.
To connect a camera to Zero, Raspberry Pi is offering a custom six-inch adapter cable. This will allow for the conversion of the fine-pitch connector format to the coarser pitch utilized by the camera board.
Though some may feel like the camera connector was delayed for a bit too long, Upton notes that the organization has been swamped since the launch of Zero.
"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," he wrote on the Raspberry Pi blog. "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."
Today, there are approximately 30,000 Zeros out there in the world, according to Upton. Additionally, he says the organization will continue producing more Zeros — in the thousands — until all of the demand is met.
The camera connector itself looks like two small microchips and a yellow ribbon. The company has since posted images of the connector on its Twitter account.
Raspberry Pi Zero, developed in Wales, debuted at a price of $5, which may be partially responsible for the high demand. It includes a Broadcom BCM2835 application processor, 512 MB of SD RAM, and a microSD card slot. It also features a mini-HDMI socket for video output. Out of all of the Raspberry Pi models, it has the smallest form size at 65 mm by 30 mm by 5 mm. In honor of its launch, the December 2015 edition of The MagPi included a free Raspberry Pi Zero.
Since Raspberry Pi began marketing its "mini computers" back in 2012, millions of people have been utilizing the device to learn more about programming at an affordable price.
