Is the Raspberry Pi Zero capable enough for security cameras?

Good question.

After picking up a Raspberry Pi Zero W on Kubii, and after having played around with it for a couple of days, I came to the conclusion that its suitability to the project largely depends on what you expect to achieve. I knew the Zero would be slower than the 3B, but I still got surprised by how easy it is to bring the platform to its knees.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

While the 3B can easily sustain 10 frames per second constantly under MotionEyeOS, the Zero would barely reach 3, and almost grind to a halt during motion detection events. This, beware, after having activated all optimizations and overclocking options allowed by the software. This was a bit of a disappointment at first, but nothing critical.

Another negative point of the Zero, is the intolerable slowness in generating and uploading footage upon motion detection. While the 3B starts populating the GDrive almost immediately after motion is detected, the Zero needs sometimes tens of seconds for the same operation. I haven't done much research yet, but I start to suspect that the Zero might implement audio and video codecs in software.

Luckily, motion detection is very responsive, and the quality of footage data is optimal.

Raspberry Pi Zero W

So, is the Zero capble enough for the application? Well, if you are interested in motion detection only, and you can afford a latency of 30+ seconds between motion detection and footage upload, then yes, absolutely. If, on the contrary, you need your camera to respond to motion events quickly, then you might be better off sacrificing the small form factor and stick to a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Same thing if your main application is to connect to the camera in real time. Be prepared to low (LOOOOOOOOOOW) framerates on the Zero (to the point that, during development, in a couple of occasions I thought the software actually froze on me).

So, the Zero is primarily suited to wearable, IoT, and other simple applications, while the 3B is naturally more suitable in computing intensive, multimedia applications.

This said, I still liked the result of my project. The Zero cameras are small and inexpensive, and the motion detection works flawlessly. The integrated WiFi module, and the availability of a large variety of accessories, make the Raspberry Pi Zero a versatile platform for a wide array of projects. Definitely worth a look.

Have you ever worked with a Raspberry Pi Zero? What do you think about it?

Have fun,
Kradion.