I was wondering if anyone knew if it would be possible to replace the #Purism #Librem5 #LinuxPhone camera with a higher resolution one, or theoretically what the hurdles would be.
@lorendias At some point, the SoC i.MX8M is the limiting factor, with some quick internet research I could not find what the limits of the MIPI CSI-2 interface are, but I did not find it.
While the Librem5 is designed to be modular regarding WiFi and Cellular, I don't think this applies to the camera; and overall, software support for this kind of camera in the Linux ecosystem is currently limiting the usefulness of the camera most.
@lorendias Let's assume, you could find a 20 Megapixel camera module that would physically fit, software support would be a major hurdle: The module would need to have support in mainline Linux, and you would have to configure the entire messy user-space portion on your own.
Also: The iMX8M lacks capabilies for video encoding, so if video is your objective... don't bother.
@lorendias IMHO: It's not worth it. The sensor in the Librem 5 seems to be good, but the software processing needs to get better, so that's what I would recommend invest time (and money?) into.
@lorendias I remember a blog post [1] where @purism mentioned the phone was extremely modular. Quote (August 2020):
> I don’t think I am mistaken if I say that the Librem 5 is the most modular smartphone out there.
So I would presume it should be quite straight forward. It appears to be trivial for Fairphones.
[1] https://puri.sm/posts/the-design-behind-a-modular-and-secure-mobile-phone/