Beta release 2

0.3.3 Beta Release 2

Added

Changed

• Very minor changes for the latest version of libcamera. "libcamera.ColorSpace.Jpeg()" has become "libcamera.ColorSpace.Sycc()".

Beta release 1 (same as v0.3.1)

Actually identical to release 0.3.1, here are the release notes again:

0.3.2 Beta Release 1

Added

• All the preview implementations now support a "display transform", allowing the preview image to be horizontally and/or vertically flipped (whilst not affecting the underlying image). The Picamer2.start_preview method allows a libcamera transform to be passed.
• Added APIs to capture and copy buffers/arrays from multiple streams at once: capture_buffers, capture_arrays, switch_mode_and_capture_buffers, switch_mode_and_capture_arrays.
• Allow entries from the sensor_modes property to be used directly as the raw stream configuration.
• Support for version 2.0 tuning files, including a find_tuning_algo method to make them easier to use.
• Demo Qt applications have been moved out of the examples folder to apps. A new "app_full.py" exists which allows phots and videos to be recorded, and gives control through a GUI of various camera and image tuning parameters.
• Added a sensor_modes field to the Picamera2 object. This can be queried to find out exactly what raw camera modes are supported, giving details of the maximum framerate and the field of view.

Changed

• Installation through pip now avoids installing the Qt and OpenGL dependencies by default. If you want them, use "pip3 install picamera2[gui]" or just do "sudo apt install -y python3-qt5 python3-opengl" first.
• Fixed bug displaying overlays using DRM (pykms seems to have changed underneath us).
• There's been some refactoring which has changed the way asynchronous calls (with wait=False) work. You should now call picam2.wait() to obtain the result, and you can set the signal_function so that you can avoid calling it before it's finished. The previous fields like "async_result" have been removed.
• JpegEncoder defaults to producing YUV420 output now, though the constructor allows other colour subsampling modes to be chosen.
• Fix bug where framerates had to be integer values.
• Fix typo in align_configuration method.
• Allow in-place image manipulation (using the MappedArray class) even when the image rows have padding.

Beta release 1

0.3.1 Beta Release 1

Added

• All the preview implementations now support a "display transform", allowing the preview image to be horizontally and/or vertically flipped (whilst not affecting the underlying image). The Picamer2.start_preview method allows a libcamera transform to be passed.
• Added APIs to capture and copy buffers/arrays from multiple streams at once: capture_buffers, capture_arrays, switch_mode_and_capture_buffers, switch_mode_and_capture_arrays.
• Allow entries from the sensor_modes property to be used directly as the raw stream configuration.
• Support for version 2.0 tuning files, including a find_tuning_algo method to make them easier to use.
• Demo Qt applications have been moved out of the examples folder to apps. A new "app_full.py" exists which allows phots and videos to be recorded, and gives control through a GUI of various camera and image tuning parameters.
• Added a sensor_modes field to the Picamera2 object. This can be queried to find out exactly what raw camera modes are supported, giving details of the maximum framerate and the field of view.

Changed

• Installation through pip now avoids installing the Qt and OpenGL dependencies by default. If you want them, use "pip3 install picamera2[gui]" or just do "sudo apt install -y python3-qt5 python3-opengl" first.
• Fixed bug displaying overlays using DRM (pykms seems to have changed underneath us).
• There's been some refactoring which has changed the way asynchronous calls (with wait=False) work. You should now call picam2.wait() to obtain the result, and you can set the signal_function so that you can avoid calling it before it's finished. The previous fields like "async_result" have been removed.
• JpegEncoder defaults to producing YUV420 output now, though the constructor allows other colour subsampling modes to be chosen.
• Fix bug where framerates had to be integer values.
• Fix typo in align_configuration method.
• Allow in-place image manipulation (using the MappedArray class) even when the image rows have padding.

Alpha release 3

0.2.3 Alpha Release 3

Added

• High level API functions "start_and_capture_file/files", "start_and_record_video" are added for users who need to know less about the Picamera2 internals.
• A very trivial Metadata class is provided that can be used to wrap the metadata dictionaries, for those that prefer this style.
• A Controls class is provided which gives an object-like view to control lists. The class is able to check that the control names are valid.
• Configuration structures are provided so that the Picamera2 object can be configured using the "object" style. Three such instances are embedded in the Picamera2 object, namely preview_configuration, still_configuration and video_configuration.

Changed

• The start_recording() method accepts an optional configuration.
• The start_preview() method accepts True as an indication to try and autodetect the correct type of preview window. Note that there will be situations where it guesses incorrectly.
• The start() method can optionally be given config and show_preview parameters which will configure the camera and start the preview (if it isn't running already).
• Streams no longer have their widths optimally aligned by default. A separate align_configuration() method can be called to enforce this.
• The preview_configuration(), still_configuration() and video_configuration() methods (xxx_configuration) are renamed to create_xxx_configuration().

Alpha release 2

0.2.2 Alpha Release 2

Added

• The QPicamera2 widget will now display YUV420 images if the cv2 (OpenCV) module is installed.
• Methods that allow still captures to be saved to files have been updated to accept file-like objects, such as BytesIO.
• NOGUI=1 environmental variable to install without GUI dependencies
• The Picamera2's request_callback has been changed to post_callback. A new pre_callback has been added which runs before images copied for applications.
• Support for multiple outputs for the encoder

Changed

• The still_configuration defaults now specify the default display and encode streams as none. The resolutions are often so large that the images can be problematic and there are often better alternatives (e.g. specifying a lores stream and displaying that instead).
• The preview window implementations are changed to preserve image aspect ratios which they did not previously. The Qt variants also respect resize events.

v0.2.1

0.2.1 Alpha Release

https://pypi.org/project/picamera2/0.2.1/

Added

• Everything installable via apt and pip.
• Many new examples.

Changed

• Revised API - please refer to README.md file and examples.

In detail

• Update README to clone using https and not SSH by @6by9 in #1
• Add a TensorFlow Example by @aallan in #3
• Update drm_preview.py by @tvoverbeek in #9
• Tidy Up Logging by @meawoppl in #12
• Added context manager. by @IanTBlack in #23
• Add an encoder class that allows multi-threaded software encode by @davidplowman in #26
• Fix typo by @davidplowman in #47
• Rename default_controls to camera_controls by @davidplowman in #42
• Add some more of the existing examples to the test suite by @davidplowman in #41
• Qtgl fix by @davidplowman in #45
• Include EXIF data when saving JPEG files by @davidplowman in #50
• Improve style checker to spot and complain about merge commits by @davidplowman in #55
• Add tuning parameter to Picamera2 constructor by @davidplowman in #52
• Overlays by @davidplowman in #49
• Add "#!/usr/bin/python" to the top of overlay examples by @davidplowman in #59
• Add offset and window frame controls to preview windows by @davidplowman in #61
• Fix leak of OpenGL texture handles by @davidplowman in #68
• Some previews hang on to the last request; they must release it when … by @davidplowman in #73
• Change the default logging level by @davidplowman in #75
• Make the Qt signal/slot mechanism easier to use by @davidplowman in #72
• Initial setup.py by @chrisruk in #53
• Circular buffer by @chrisruk in #54
• Fix an OpenGL check for versions of GLES earlier than 3.0 by @davidplowman in #78
• Documentation: update installation instructions by @davidplowman in #77
• Import cleanup by @meawoppl in #82
• Async Cleanup by @meawoppl in #83
• Update contributing guidelines to be a bit clearer by @davidplowman in #89
• Display encode improvements by @davidplowman in #79
• Preemptive check if camera_manager.cameras is empty by @Luraminaki in #91
• Dng support by @davidplowman in #93
• Initial attempt to set gop size by @chrisruk in #92
• Optimise memory for still capture by @davidplowman in #80
• Use enums for camera controls by @davidplowman in #85
• Make Picamera2.start() create the event loop automatically by @davidplowman in #74
• Preview merge by @davidplowman in #90
• PyPI packaging by @grega in #100
• Add V4L2 MJPEG encoder and example by @chrisruk in #101
• Fix broken import for MJPEG server by @chrisruk in #103
• Simplifying imports by @chrisruk in #105
• Include outputs directory in setup.py by @chrisruk in #106
• Improve yuv_to_rgb.py example by @davidplowman in #107
• New FfmpegOutput class allows writing of mp4 files and audio streams by @davidplowman in #104
• Add setup.py requirement for ffmpeg output by @chrisruk in #108
• Fix small syntax warning by @davidplowman in #109
• Fix some Qt complaints caused by the location of various imports by @davidplowman in #110
• An extra recording example by @davidplowman in #112
• Integration with the upstream libcamera tree. by @naushir in #113
• Remove controls parameter from start method by @davidplowman in #115
• Update documentation and setup.py for alpha release by @davidplowman in #117

New Contributors

• @6by9 made their first contribution in #1
• @aallan made their first contribution in #3
• @tvoverbeek made their first contribution in #9
• @IanTBlack made their first contribution in #23
• @davidplowman made their first contribution in #26
• @Luraminaki made their first contribution in #91
• @grega made their first contribution in #100
• @naushir made their first contribution in #113

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raspberrypi/picamera2/commits/v0.2.1