Zybo-Z7's Pcam port - advantage against ZedBoard or not?

[yottabyte]

Hi,

not a long time ago, I got in contact with FPGAs/Verilog and noticed, I like it. After having some fun with a Basys2, I want to get into SoC now. Of course first of it all there is the decision to make, which board to buy. After quite a few hours of research there are two boards left: Zybo-Z7 and the ZedBoard. Sometime probably I will do something with video to do something which takes advantage of parallelism. I'm still not clear about the advantage of the Zybo's Pcam adapter. I know the maximum bandwidth through Pcam is higher than through ZedBoards highspeed-Pmod. But isn't the limiting factor the camera module itself anyway? If great resolution at cameras maximum frame rate fit through Pmod also, why is Pcam a plus then -or isn't it actually at all? Or maybe is Pcam or MIPI CSI-2 designed for high end cameras, which private people usually can't afford anyway?

Thank you!

[jpeyron]

Hi @yottabyte,

Its my understanding that we added the MIPI CSI-2 connection in the Zybo Z7 development boards due to this type of camera Serial Interface being used more and more in industry as discussed here as well as in the hobbyist realm.  We also have the PCAM 5C camera that uses the MIPI CSI-2 interface. There are other component differences like the Zybo Z7 is has an HDMI source and sink where the Zedboard only has the one HDMI connection along with the VGA. The Zedboard has VADJ ability with two differentially paired Pmod Ports and an FMC for high speed LVDS communication. There is a cost difference between the two boards if budget is a concern.  

thank you,

Jon