Raspberry Pi has announced a new High Quality Camera add-on, available for $50. It turns your diminutive credit card-sized computer into a fully-fledged digital camera with the variable focus you'd expect from a DSLR.

Raspbery Pi's existing second-generation 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera module from 2016 will continue to be sold alongside it - over 1.7 million have been sold to date. 

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In the works for the last three years, the High Quality Camera add-on is a 12.3 megxpixel Sony IMX477 sensor with support for C- and CS-mount lenses.

Of course, you can use other lenses but there will be some you can buy alongside the product - a 6 mm CS‑mount lens at $25, and a 16 mm C-mount lens at $50. Coincidentally, there's an included C-CS adapter for C-mount lenses. 

Raspberry Pi says the lens will appeal to camera hackers who have long used the Raspberry Pi alongside DSLR cameras. Pi's first camera board, sold in 2013, was rapidly incorporated into other devices including telescopes and drones! 

Raspberry Pi Press has also published a full guide to the camera, too. Oh, and it's compatible with pretty much all Raspberry Pi models, from the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B onward.