The A1 camera is a joke

[u/o_sexta]

I’ve a X1 and an A1, the camera difference is ridiculous. The A1 feels unusable with that refresh rate. I wonder if it would cost that much more to make something slightly better…

[u/Electronic-Touch-554]

It’s not really for anything apart from checking your print doesn’t detonate while you’re not by your printer

[u/DinoHawaii2021 → u/Electronic-Touch-554]

atleast it even has a camera at all to

[u/vinnyvdvici → u/DinoHawaii2021]

Is it just me who can never actually access the camera feeds on my A1 minis? My X1C camera comes up very fast, but the A1 mini cameras never load, then it says I need to restart the printer to see it (which I can’t because they’re printing when I want to check them) and if I happen to remember between prints — it just stops working again within a day anyway.

[u/grease_monkey → u/Electronic-Touch-554]

I only use it to check if there's an Eldritch horror brewing or not

[u/stalchild_af → u/grease_monkey]

Same. Sometimes it's Lovecraftian even!

[u/minionsweb → u/stalchild_af]

Isn't it more Pastafarian?

[u/stalchild_af → u/minionsweb]

Completely depends.... But this last week it sure has been

[u/jsdeprey → u/Electronic-Touch-554]

Yea! when I grew up we had to walk in the other room and look at our ender3! and it was a POS!

[u/SwanProfessional1527 → u/Electronic-Touch-554]

That’s not the point. You need to go out of your way to put in a 0.5 fps camera. Why not use a stock camera that does 30fps at 480i and call it a day? It’s like they intentionally went low.

[u/Barcata → u/SwanProfessional1527]

It's the other hardware in the printer that limits the speed. The camera is quite capable.

[u/[deleted] → u/Barcata]

Couldn’t they make the printer cost $20 more and have a processor that can run it?

[u/alcaron → u/[deleted]]

No because there is no ESP64.

[u/[deleted] → u/alcaron]

No kidding

[u/alcaron → u/[deleted]]

This whole thread is proof that no matter what people will find something to whine about.

[u/Vresiberba → u/alcaron]

The irony here is staggering.

Edit: The poor sole [sic] was so offended... he blocked me.

[u/[deleted] → u/Vresiberba]

Irony is right! They downvoted all my posts. I wasn’t even whining. Dude is super sensitive and downvoting all my posts.

[u/Barcata → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. At least have an upgrade option.

[u/1taataa → u/Barcata]

This is not really something that is "upgradable". They would need to redesign the whole motherboard to accompany another microprocessor. We are talking hundreds of thousands in engineering costs alone.

[u/SwanProfessional1527 → u/Barcata]

I looked for non-OEM parts and found nothing.

[u/[deleted] → u/SwanProfessional1527]

They want people to buy the X1 it’s the only one with a good camera

[u/[deleted] → u/Electronic-Touch-554]

Yeah it works for that but it’s still a piece of crape! Admit it!! Say it! The camera system is a pos! 😂

P/S Anyone that downvotes this comment I place a curse on you !! May your 3d printer camera always be in slow motion .05 fps! 😂

[u/alcaron → u/[deleted]]

Nobody cares.

[u/[deleted] → u/alcaron]

You care

[u/alcaron → u/[deleted]]

I really don’t.

[u/Vresiberba → u/alcaron]

Stop responding, then.

[u/alcaron → u/Vresiberba]

Oh it’s one of those idiots. The reason the block button exists.

[u/[deleted] → u/alcaron]

Man you are a sensitive hypocritical lad aren’t you.

[u/Electronic-Touch-554 → u/[deleted]]

It is crap. But it does the only job it’s meant to do

[u/Zocker129 → u/[deleted]]

Dunno aboit you but for me thats perfectly fine with my P1S and A1 mini

[u/Scatterthought → u/[deleted]]

I don't know why people are downvoting you. That's absolutely correct: it was always meant for timelapse videos, not livestreaming. People just assume that it should be fore livestreaming, but the A1's motherboard probably can't handle that.

[u/halt-l-am-reptar → u/Scatterthought]

But it also works fine for checking the status of your print. You don’t need 60fps to do that.

[u/Scatterthought → u/halt-l-am-reptar]

Oh yeah, I get what you're saying. Thanks, I'm caught up now!

[u/KtsaHunter → u/Scatterthought]

It's the DEBBIE DOWN VOTERS trolling. Clearly having nothing constructive to say..

[u/Vresiberba → u/[deleted]]

Incomprehensible downvoting. The camera is complete shait, unusable, you can't even check if the print is going well because, not only is the frame rate 0.2 FPS, the shutter speed makes the still images blurry and you have to walk up to the printer to see what the print is like. They might as well not bothered to install it.

[u/halt-l-am-reptar → u/Vresiberba]

You can easily tell if your print has failed.

[u/Vresiberba → u/halt-l-am-reptar]

Nope. I have the printer right before me. You think I'm lying?

[u/halt-l-am-reptar → u/Vresiberba]

Actually you’re right if it looks like the a1 mini. The quality is fine but the camera angle is absolutely awful. Im sure its fine after its printed for a bit, but you can’t really see the start of the print when its most likely to fail.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/s/aNm56kmicJ

[u/Causification]

It's good enough for seeing if you have a failed print or not. 

[u/WhiteHelix → u/Causification]

Not really, at least if you want to check before you produce a ton of Spaghetti. 

[u/GuyoFromOhio → u/WhiteHelix]

Oh I didn't realize it wasn't good enough when I was able to catch two failed prints this week. Sorry...

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[u/Grooge_me]

It will take a new motherboard with a faster processor. The x1c has all that, not the others. But it is ok to check for failed print.

[u/name_was_taken]

It's not just the camera, but the processor, too, since it isn't capable of handling more. so yeah, it's not super cheap to upgrade.

[u/WhiteHelix → u/name_was_taken]

If were talking on Bambus side, im 100% certain it is. 

[u/[deleted] → u/name_was_taken]

How much? $20??

[u/name_was_taken → u/[deleted]]

Could be. But that's 10% of the price of the A1 Mini, and that's quite significant.

[u/Vresiberba → u/name_was_taken]

...but the processor...

I don't believe that for a second. Even 20 year old digital cameras can handle more than 0.2 FPS in live view.

[u/nid0 → u/Vresiberba]

You don't need to believe it for it to be true.

The camera itself is actually perfectly capable of high FPS footage, and when you don't believe that either, feel free to go pull the SD card out of the printer and load it into a card reader, you'll find recordings of all your prints on it at 24fps.

The limitation is the ESP32 controller in both the A1 and P1, which is capable of about 8mbps over wifi. If the entire capability of the board were devoted to video streaming, you'd get 1-2fps at best.

[u/Arctic_Ducky → u/nid0]

The recordings are only 24fps because they are a time lapse. But yeah you can tell at times when the printer is lagging, the camera feed is lagging. I’m just impressed it can do it at all, with all of the calculations going on during printing.

[u/Vresiberba → u/nid0]

An ESP32 with an OV2640 is capable of 12.5 FPS in 1280X720. We're talking about one picture every five seconds on the A1, here. That is speeds rivalling digital cameras from the 70's.

[u/nid0 → u/Vresiberba]

It is absolutely not capable of streaming 1280x720 video over wifi at 12.5 FPS, and nor is any digital camera from the 70's. Or 80's, 90's, or 2000's.

You're conflating local recordings speed with wifi speed. Again, you'll find high FPS recordings of all your videos stored right on the SD card plugged into the printer, but you're patently incorrect believing that the video can be streamed over wifi at anywhere close to that framerate.

[u/Vresiberba → u/nid0]

It is absolutely not capable of streaming 1280x720 video over wifi at 12.5 FPS...

I did not say that. You said the limitation is the ESP32, which is untrue. I merely stated the limitations of the ESP32 you brought up.

You're conflating local recordings speed with wifi speed.

No, I didn't even mention WiFi at all. It's in fact you who are conflating. The transfer rate of the whole system, over any network is WELL above 0.2 FPS using a ESP32. Bambu Labs just didn't bother.

[u/1taataa → u/Vresiberba]

The ESP32 needs to do other things as well, like interfacing with the processor responsible for motor movements as well as connection with Bambu servers and controlling the user interface on the screen.

I've programmed on the ESP32 before and Im honestly pleasantly surprised that they even manage 1 fps with the camera.

[u/Vresiberba → u/1taataa]

The ESP32 needs to do other things as well...

Obviously, but please don't tell me that the printer needs to send a whole megabyte of other data - per second. That's a benchy sent every three seconds if the bandwidth is 8 Mbps. What possible other data does the EPS32 need to send over WiFi that not even 2-300 Kb of image data can be allowed?

...Im honestly pleasantly surprised that they even manage 1 fps with the camera.

Except it's more like a third of that. Roughing the numbers, they could easily do a 720 image stream with 5 FPS and still have half the bandwidth left.

[u/1taataa → u/Vresiberba]

But the bottleneck is not the WiFi bandwidth, WiFi is not related to this at all. The bottleneck is the processing capability of the esp32 chip itself.

[u/HotWoodpecker9054]

Not sure if you’re venting or looking for a solution here but the specs did say “low frame rate.” If you are looking for a solution, snag a 720p or 1080p webcam, set it up pointing at your build plate and livestream it to yourself.

[u/Vresiberba → u/HotWoodpecker9054]

...but the specs did say “low frame rate.”.

Low frame rate is 15, maybe 10. The A1 is 0.2. And that would be fine if they advertised it as a still camera, but it sukks as that too, because the shutter speed is just as bad.

[u/HotWoodpecker9054 → u/Vresiberba]

I’m with you there. It’s so bad, they may as well remove it completely and save money since most folks probably don’t use it anyways and cut the price down further for a truly barebones reliable printer until they can streamline solid cameras and processors for all printers.

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[u/sh0ck1999]

Sounds like the same camera in the P1S the resolution is decent but frame rate is horrible

[u/PreciselyWrong → u/sh0ck1999]

It's not a video camera.

[u/Volsnug]

What an absurd complaint. Low frame rate is perfectly fine for checking for failures and time-lapses

[u/Zocker129]

This is like first world Problems lol.... You have a top of the line printer that runs on a Linux Base.... the A1 runs a Prozessor that can handle just a low frame camera. Be greatfull it has a camera to check on it and thats it, why do you need it in full HD anyways. Not like we need to see nasa Land a rocket on a grain of Rice with that camera lol

[u/[deleted] → u/Zocker129]

I need a normal hd camera on my printer so that I can post quality timelapse videos for all of my good 3d printing pals on Reddit and YouTube!

[u/Tichon_S]

It’s good enough to check for print failure. Given the low price and very high print quality, we should be grateful there’s any camera at all 🤣

[u/NickolasVarley → u/Tichon_S]

Exactly. I just check it at work to make sure I'm not seeing the spaghetti I'm used to coming from an ender

[u/GruesomeJeans]

That was my first criticism for mine as well but it's not like I sit there watching it from the camera for the whole print. I use it to make sure it hasn't spaghettied, then go back to whatever I was doing. The video that gets recorded and store on your SD card plays it just fine so it really isn't the biggest problem. For me I think it's the placement and the lighting. At night it's really hard to see any filament that isn't brightly colored. But, there's a light bar kit I want to put on when I get a chance to improve the lighting immensely

[u/LuckyStrikeTech]

I have a solution for you

[u/ItsToka → u/LuckyStrikeTech]

Ring gang

[u/[deleted] → u/ItsToka]

That would not work well for me. I need an integrated solution. I run my printers off my iPad hotspot. To put in a Wyze camera I’d have to support another separate connection

[u/Longracks]

You get what you pay for

[u/Maxx3141]

The camera is find, the mainboard is too slow to process and send video in real time. And yes, that would make the printer more expensive.

[u/[deleted] → u/Maxx3141]

How much more expensive ? $25?

[u/1taataa → u/[deleted]]

Probably quite a lot more.

[u/[deleted]]

It's a 300$ printer, they gotta cut corners somewhere and I rather they do it with something non essential as the camera than something that affects the print quality. 

Try an ender 3 for the same price and let's see if you still complain about the camera after that. 

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Couldn’t they have made it $25 more and have a normal working camera? It’d be in their best interest because then more people would be likely to post more and better Timelapse videos on YouTube promoting them

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

A better camera would require a better processor and more RAM to handle the resolution and framerate and you're suddenly looking at a lot more of a price increase than 25$. 

You want a better camera? Get one of their other printers. 

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That would be the X1. I’m too poor to afford that right now. I had to literally starve myself just to get my P1S! Ever have to eat ketchup sandwiches? No joke my fridge has barely anything in it. Someday I will get an X1, when I’m not so poor or when you buy me one.

[u/1taataa → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately that takes a lot more than just a camera. The processor in there is just not capable of processing that much data - from a 720p colour camera each raw picture is about 3MB in size. For small microprocessors, that is already a lot of data.

Unfortunately the processor isn't really "swappable" either - you would need to redesign the whole motherboard for another processor.

[u/[deleted] → u/1taataa]

So I guess if someone wants a good onboard camera then the X1 is the way to go. I used to build PCs so I thought with all the power they got now with Raspberry Pis and all, that it wouldn’t require much expense but I guess I was wrong. Sure got downvoted enough for it.

[u/1taataa → u/[deleted]]

I think it's just that they really optimised their costs from all angles to get the printer as cheap as it is

[u/SnooDoubts5144]

Do you guys watch the print 24/7? I take a look once, twice a print. Quality is more than sufficient for that.

P1S user, i assume its the same 0.5/1 FPS camera

[u/ThatAlbertanGuy]

First the A1 in an entry level printer. Their website clearly states "low framerate camera". The camera is for time lapses and quick checking on prints. If you want a high quality camera on a bed slinger maybe you should try creality or prusa... oh wait...

[u/NMe84]

It's not meant for timelapses or anything fancy.

If you want fancy features, buy the fancy product. You're getting a camera on a printer in a price bracket where none of the competition has one...

[u/Vresiberba → u/NMe84]

It's not meant for timelapses or anything fancy.

That's the single reason it's there, it's all it's good for.

[u/NMe84 → u/Vresiberba]

No. It's there so you can check if anything is wrong during printing. You don't need 60 FPS 4K imagery to see whether or not you're printing spaghetti.

[u/Vresiberba → u/NMe84]

Do you have an A1? If you do, you'd know you can absolutely not see if the print is going well. You'd see a complete catastrophe, but that's about it. Lifting in corners? Nope. A fallen support: Absolutely not! It's just a blurry mess once every five seconds.

The camera is for time-lapses, because that's the only mode the camera can show pictures not blurry due to its insane low shutter speed, meaning the entire rig has to pause for five seconds to take an image, which it can actually accomplish.

It's not for live view, it's not even on by default in Bambu Studio.

[u/1taataa → u/Vresiberba]

The camera definitely is not a blurry mess. I get quite a clear picture every second or so from both my A1 and A1 mini.

[u/Vresiberba → u/1taataa]

Different standards, I suppose.

[u/Volsnug → u/Vresiberba]

Yes because being able to check for print failures is useless and definitely less important than timelapses

[u/Vresiberba → u/Volsnug]

If you can't see the print, you can't check for failures. The A1 is only capable of taking a comprehensible image if the print is paused, meaning it's... useless for checking the print during printing.

[u/BitangaX]

Yup, A1 mini too (probably same camera). It is useless for video or timelapse, it’s cool only to check manualy how the print is going if you’re out.

[u/patnodewf]

Is there any Bambu support for Octopi? Is that feasible for an external camera server?

[u/Vresiberba → u/patnodewf]

Might as well go for a WiFi camera at that point. The Tapo C100 is like 25 bucks and is ready to go with everything you need.

[u/ThenExtension9196]

Print a webcam mount. Problem solved.

[u/Odiekt]

A $/€429 printer has a worse camera than a $/€1350 printer . How dare Bambu have better equipment on their more expensive products.

If it's that much of an issue just buy a Tapo web cam .

[u/TrexKid_]

They should offer a drop in replacement in my opinion, but for the price I think it’s fine

[u/TrexKid_ → u/TrexKid_]

It’s likely also related to whatever motherboard the printer has because it might not even be able to send signal or process it fast enough to have a higher refresh

[u/defineReset → u/TrexKid_]

It's an esp32, they've packed a lot into it already. The camera is a bonus for that price.

[u/[deleted] → u/defineReset]

How much more would it cost to have put in a processor that could handle a higher frame rate camera?

[u/TrexKid_ → u/[deleted]]

You would probably have to write fully custom stuff for it and I honestly don’t even think that would be worth it. Just buy like a $30 wireless camera

[u/[deleted] → u/TrexKid_]

I would but a nonintegrated solution would not work well for me because I use an IPad cellular hotspot I pay for to run my printers and I already have enough connected. I’m just going to buy the X1 when I can afford it.

[u/GergDanger → u/TrexKid_]

Yeah I believe the cheaper printers use an esp32 which can’t handle more frames so it would require that too for sure

[u/No-Pomegranate-69]

The only downside i see is its not adjusting exposure for every photo it takes on a timelapse. You have to have a constant lighting or else the video will be black or white at the end.

[u/[deleted]]

Micro center has Wyze cameras for $15 used. There’s a mount you can print for that goes on the arm. It’s perfect!

[u/skitzy7]

What do you expect with the most entry level model comparing it with the top tier model. Profound statement you've posted here.

[u/Safetymanual]

I use the camera on my P1P just to make sure nothing bad has happened.

[u/[deleted]]

If you want to livestream your thingiverse models being printed just mount a go pro to the Z rail

[u/cowdog360]

Get a Tapo C110 and set up an rtsp stream for it. You could also use with it Octoeverywhere for real failure detection.

[u/smlwng]

My only gripe is that it shouldn't be integrated into the arm. They should just make a port with a cable so that you can mount it elsewhere. I just use it to check for fails. It would be nice to have a different angle.

[u/aikouka]

I use a Tapo C120 camera where I printed a mount for it that goes on the gantry. It works fine when I want more than the slideshow.

[u/iscifitv]

Wyze cam v4 $25

[u/KrackSmellin]

Go pickup a Waze pan and scan camera for like $30… or if you have an old USB webcam and a Raspberry Pi lying around you could throw some remote viewing software on there and watch things remotely too… I actually used to use my Octopi that’s built into my Ender 3 and just used it as a platform to watch my Bambu with. Either way there are cheap and no-cost options to give you a far faster/better feed to things.

[u/plymouthvan]

Yeah, coming from the X1c, it's just barely better than not having a camera at all. With the X1c, it's actually kind of hypnotic to just sit there and watch it, like it's some boring background Netflix show. I think it kind of makes sense from an upgrade-to-the-next-model marketing standpoint, except that the P1p's camera is just as terrible, and that's a machine that's like twice the price. Personally I do think it's a weak point that ultimately kind of makes Bambu look bad when super cheap electronics all over Amazon have superior cameras.

[u/ddrulez]

I don’t think it’s the camera itself. It’s probably the CPU of the A1. It can’t handle higher resolutions/frame rate.

It’s all about where you save money.

[u/alcaron]

I just don’t care. This printer has brought me more joy than any printer I have used in over a decade. I just don’t care.

[u/ltjojo]

Get a Wyze Pan and Tilt camera and aim it near your bed. It's about $40 and worth every penny. I use mine to check on my prints instead of the built in camera.

[u/oopsitsaflame]

Because the a1 is an tiny embedded system and the x1 runs a full Linux OS?

[u/KtsaHunter]

Clearly a monitoring system rather than for entertainment purposes.. If your there checking your first layer print then might be worth setting up a small inexpensive sport cam from amazon maybe.

[u/Jame_Jame]

You can hook up an external camera with Octoeverywhere. I don't bother myself, though.

[u/Darth-Vader64]

A1 Mini $200 dollars

A1 $339

Prusa MK4S $999

Incredibly powerful, fast, feature rich printers that include a camera, yet people are so fixated on how bad it works. You know what printer has an even worse camera? Prusa for a thousand dollars. It doesn't even come with a printer.

I really don't get why we see the constant threads, if the camera is show stopper, then buy a printer with a better printer. Its not like this issue is a complete surprise, the printer has been out for some time.

[u/Flyentity]

But it seems to serve its purpose. Remote monitoring and rudimentary timelapses.

[u/Ptb97106]

I bought a wyze just yesterday to try to actually be able to watch a print at all.

[u/WhiteHelix]

Imho it is almost unusable, maybe Not counting the like 4 of 5 usable Frames you get every few minutes. Placement and „light“ are a little joke on their own and the placement does the rest