Part of the motivation for getting a Raspberry Pi HQ camera sensor was being able to use lenses with adjustable focus and aperture, like the Official 10 MP “telephoto” lens:
Yes, it can focus absurdly close to the lens, particularly when you mess around with the back focus adjustment.
With the aperture fully open at f/1.4:
Stopped down to f/16:
The field of view is about 60 mm (left-to-right) at 150 mm. Obviously, arranging the camera with its optical axis more-or-less perpendicular to the page will improve everything about the image.
For normal subjects at normal ranges with normal lighting, the depth of field works pretty much the way you’d expect:
At f/1.4, focused on the potted plants a dozen feet away:
Also at f/1.4, focused on the background at infinity:
In comparison, the laptop camera renders everything equally badly (at a lower resolution, so it’s not a fair comparison):
Stipulated: these are screen captures of “movies” from raspivid over the network to VLC. The HQ sensor is capable of much better images.
None of this is surprising, but it’s a relief from the usual phone sensor camera with fixed focus (at “infinity” if you’re lucky) and a wide-open aperture.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 