4K Camera
4K Cam
Low-Light ROV Camera
The camera Blue Robotics built to replace the BlueROV2’s standard 1080p view. A Sony IMX678 sensor at 3840 × 2160, motorised zoom and focus, an integrated tilt servo and 0.001 lux sensitivity — at 225 ms of latency, so it still pilots like a piloting camera.
Same vehicle, same dome, four times the picture
The 4K Cam is a retrofit, not a new ROV. It goes into the electronics enclosure a BlueROV2 already has, behind the dome it already has — and changes the thing operators actually complain about.
Four numbers do all the work
The standard BlueROV2 camera is a 2.07 megapixel USB device with a fixed 110° lens. The 4K Cam is an 8.29 megapixel Ethernet camera on a motorised 3.6–11 mm lens. In practice that is the difference between seeing that there is a weld and being able to read it.
- 8.29 MP instead of 2.07 MP — four times the pixels on the same frame, so you can crop into a defect after the dive instead of re-flying it.
- 0.001 lux instead of 0.01 lux — a decade of sensor progress in the dark end of the range, on a 1/1.8″ Sony IMX678 with F1.5 optics.
- Motorised 2× zoom and remote focus — close in on a detail without driving the vehicle into it.
- Accurate colour, deliberately — blue-water and green-water white-balance presets plus one-push recalibration, instead of living with whatever cast the water gives you.
The complete retrofit, in two parts
The 4K Cam is an Ethernet camera, so it needs the Blue Robotics Ethernet Switch inside the enclosure to reach BlueOS. Those two items are the whole upgrade — everything else you need is in the box.
BlueROV2 4K upgrade
What we quote for a standard BlueROV2 owner moving from the 1080p USB camera to the 4K Cam.
Indicative EUR, excluding VAT and shipping. Already running an Ethernet sensor — an Omniscan 450, a DVL or a MarineSitu camera — on a switch? Then the camera alone is the whole upgrade. Fleet pricing is available from three units; ask us in the same enquiry.
Request this upgrade quote →Or add either part to your quote list and keep browsing — the list follows you across every Blue Robotics page and fills in the enquiry form at the bottom.
BlueROV2New
RequiredZoom, focus, tilt and colour — from the pilot’s controller
Every moving part of the camera is on the vehicle’s own PWM outputs and exposed through the 4K Cam Manager extension in BlueOS, so the controls land where the pilot already is.
Motorised zoom and focus
A 3.6–11 mm lens with automatic F1.5 aperture, focusing from 0.2 m to infinity. Zoom and focus run on their own PWM channels and can be correlated, so one control does both. Assignable to controller buttons in Cockpit.
Tilt servo, built in
A Hitec HS-5055MG servo is part of the camera, not a separate kit — 126° of tilt range so you can look up at a hull or down at the seabed without pitching the whole vehicle.
Water-colour white balance
Blue-water and green-water presets, plus auto and manual modes with one-push recalibration when the light changes. Blue Robotics recommend manual mode for most underwater work — auto keeps re-guessing as the scene shifts.
Stream you can dial down
Pick 4K (3840×2160) or full HD (1920×1080) and set the bitrate to match your tether. H.264, H.265, H.265+ and MJPEG; a 20 Mbps uplink is the minimum for the top mode.
Cockpit does more with it than QGroundControl. Cockpit configures the stream itself (RTSP standalone, WebRTC in Lite), ships dedicated 4K Cam widgets and maps zoom, focus and white balance onto controller buttons. Zoom/focus correlation and one-push white balance are only available through those controller functions — on QGroundControl you get the video, but you drive the camera from the extension page instead.
4K that a pilot can actually fly behind
Resolution is the easy part of an underwater camera. The hard part is giving a pilot 4K without adding the half-second of lag that makes close-quarters work in a current unpleasant — which is why so many high-resolution payloads end up as a recording camera bolted next to a low-latency piloting camera.
Fifteen milliseconds is the entire cost of going from 1080p to 4K on this camera. That is what makes it a piloting camera at full resolution rather than a payload you switch to for the photograph.
- 1–30 fps selectable at every resolution, so you can trade frame rate for bitrate on a long or thin tether.
- A 1/1.8″ sensor with 2 µm pixels — large pixels are what buy the low-light performance, not just the megapixel count.
- Lens distortion under 0.6%, so straight edges in a structure stay straight in the frame.
Will it fit my BlueROV2?
Six things decide it. Check them against your vehicle — or send us your build and serial and we will check for you before quoting.
Five steps inside the enclosure
The 4K Cam takes the place of the existing USB camera assembly — the camera and its tilt mechanism both come out, because the new camera brings its own servo. Blue Robotics publish the full procedure; this is the shape of it.
- Remove the USB camera assembly. Camera and tilt mechanism together — the 4K Cam replaces both.
- Fit the Ethernet Switch inside the electronics enclosure and bring the camera onto the enclosure network.
- Swap the standoffs from 31 mm to the 25 mm standoffs supplied in the box, then mount the camera.
- Wire the three PWM channels — focus on 10, zoom on 11, tilt on 16, with channel 12 reserved for the correlation script — and the 5–55 V power feed on its spade terminals.
- Install the 4K Cam Manager extension in BlueOS, apply the default hardware setup, and pick your resolution, bitrate and water preset.
Three practical details
- The camera is not itself depth-rated — the enclosure is. It sits in the dry housing, so your depth limit stays whatever your vehicle is: 100 m on acrylic, 300 m on aluminium.
- It has a cooling fan and a wide temperature range. −20 to 60 °C operating, 5 W maximum draw at 5–55 V input — a negligible load against a 266 Wh pack.
- Check your tether budget. 20 Mbps of uplink is the minimum for the top stream. On a thin or very long tether, drop to 1080p or lower the bitrate rather than fighting the picture.
Not sure which BlueOS version you are on, or whether your vehicle has a Navigator? Send us the serial number with your enquiry. We will confirm the retrofit before you commit to it — and tell you if you need a Navigator upgrade in the same quote.
Have us check my build →See It In Action
Blue Robotics’ own walkthrough of the 4K Cam — the sensor, the zoom and tilt controls, and what the footage actually looks like coming off a BlueROV2.
“4K Cam: the raddest 4K low-light ROV piloting camera” — source: Blue Robotics
4K Cam Specifications
Manufacturer figures for part number BR-103829.
Sensor & image
| Sensor | Sony IMX678 CMOS, 1/1.8″ |
| Effective pixels | 3840 × 2160 (~8.29 MP) |
| Pixel size | 2 µm × 2 µm |
| Minimum illumination | 0.001 lux @ F1.2 |
| Distortion | < 0.6% |
| Field of view | 94° horizontal · 62° vertical |
Lens
| Focal length | 3.6–11 mm ±5% |
| Optical zoom | 2×, motorised |
| Aperture | Automatic, F1.5 |
| Focus range | 0.2 m to infinity, motorised |
| Mount | D14 |
Video
| Compression | H.264 · H.265 · H.265+ · MJPEG |
| Primary stream | 3840×2160 · 2880×1620 · 2560×1440 · 1920×1080 |
| Secondary stream | 1280×720 · 704×576 · 640×480 |
| Frame rate | 1–30 fps at every resolution |
| Latency | 210 ms @ 1080p30 · 225 ms @ 4K30 |
Interface & control
| Interface | 100Base-T Ethernet |
| Default IP address | 192.168.2.10 |
| Minimum tether bandwidth | 20 Mbps TX |
| Data connector | 4-position JST GH |
| PWM frequency | 50–200 Hz |
| PWM ranges | Tilt 865–2250 µs · zoom and focus 885–2250 µs |
| Tilt servo | Hitec HS-5055MG, 126° maximum range |
Power
| Input voltage | 5–55 V |
| Maximum power | 5 W |
| Power connectors | #6 spade terminals |
Physical & environment
| Dimensions | 105.5 × 91 mm |
| Mounting holes | 94 mm horizontal × 90 mm vertical, ø3.3 mm |
| Weight | 156 g |
| Operating temperature | −20 to 60 °C |
| Cooling | Built-in fan |
| Depth rating | Set by the host enclosure — 100 m acrylic / 300 m aluminium on a BlueROV2 |
| HS code | 8525.89 |
In the box — and what else you need
The mounting hardware for a standard BlueROV2 retrofit ships with the camera. The network side does not.
Included
- 1× 4K Cam Low-Light ROV Camera (BR-103829), with integrated tilt servo and cooling fan
- 4× 25 mm M3 standoffs — these replace the 31 mm standoffs in a standard BlueROV2
- 2× 6 mm M3 standoffs
- 2× M3 × 8 socket head cap screws
Required, sold separately
- Ethernet Switch (5-port), BR-100457 — €174. Not optional: the camera is an IP device and needs the switch to reach BlueOS. If you already run an Omniscan 450, a DVL or another Ethernet payload, you already have one.
Worth adding
- Lumen subsea lights. 0.001 lux buys you a lot of darkness, but 4K resolves detail you have to illuminate to see. Two lights is the usual starting point, four for turbid water.
- A second pack. The camera itself draws at most 5 W, so endurance is unchanged — but longer dives are the reason most people want 4K in the first place.
- A Navigator upgrade, if your vehicle is still on a Pixhawk 1 and you want zoom/focus correlation.
Everything above can go on one quote alongside the camera — add what you want to the quote list and we will price it as a single upgrade, including the batteries we hold in EU stock and dispatch within 48 hours.
About our battery stock →Which camera for which job
Four cameras, four different jobs. The 4K Cam is the piloting and inspection camera; the others are still the right answer for a second view, a custom build, or measurement work.
| Spec | 4K Cam | Low-Light HD USB | DeepWater exploreHD | MarineSitu C3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 3840×2160 (8.3 MP) | 1920×1080 (2.1 MP) | 1920×1080 | Stereo pair, calibrated |
| Low light | 0.001 lux | 0.01 lux | Wide dynamic range | — |
| Interface | Ethernet (needs switch) | USB | USB | Ethernet |
| Zoom / focus | 2× motorised, remote focus | Fixed | Fixed | Fixed |
| Tilt | Integrated, 126° | Separate tilt system | — | — |
| Own depth rating | In-enclosure (vehicle rating) | In-enclosure | 400 m, external | 300 m, external |
| Best for | Piloting and inspection at full resolution | Spare, or a budget custom build | A second external view | 3D reconstruction and measurement |
| Indicative EUR | €705 | €113 | €306 | €3,713 |
All four are stocked and quoted together — see the full sensors & cameras range.
The rest of the Blue Robotics range
Every platform and component, supplied and quoted together — jump to a related range.
BlueROV2
The open-source underwater ROV.
BlueBoat USV
Autonomous survey surface vessel.
Thrusters & Motors
T200, T500, M200, ESCs & lights.
Sonars & Acoustics
Scanning, imaging & multibeam.
Enclosures & Buoyancy
WTE housings, seals & foam.
Sensors & Cameras
Depth, temperature, leak & imaging.
All Accessories
100+ parts, spares & cables.
Request 4K Cam Pricing
Tell us which BlueROV2 you are upgrading — build, and the serial number if you have it — and we will confirm the retrofit and quote the camera, the switch and anything else you need in EUR.
Send Us a Message
List the products and quantities you need and we will prepare a complete EUR quote.