OpenCV & Python // Web Camera Quick Test

This post assumes you have either a USB webcam, a built-in webcam, or even a Pi Camera (if you're using OpenCV on Raspberry Pi) .

This is meant to show a quick way to test your camera is working as it should.

Need help installing OpenCV for Python? Check out the Mac or Windows install guides (Linux and Raspberry Pi coming soon).

Create a python file, say camera-test.py containing:

import numpy as np
import cv2

cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

while(True):
    # Capture frame-by-frame
    ret, frame = cap.read()

    # Our operations on the frame come here
    gray = cv2.cvtColor(frame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
   
    # Display the resulting frame
    cv2.imshow('frame',frame)
    cv2.imshow('gray',gray)
    if cv2.waitKey(20) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
        break

# When everything done, release the capture
cap.release()
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

now run:

C:\> python camera-test.py

You should see 2 images from your webcam. 1 in gray scale, 1 in color just like the one above albeit with your face! .

To quit, hit the key q "on" the video window(s) to stop the camera.