Python OpenCV: Capture Video from Camera

Python provides various libraries for image and video processing. One of them is OpenCV. OpenCV is a vast library that helps in providing various functions for image and video operations. With OpenCV, we can capture a video from the camera. It lets you create a video capture object which is helpful to capture videos through webcam and then you may perform desired operations on that video.

Steps to capture a video:

• Use cv2.VideoCapture() to get a video capture object for the camera.
• Set up an infinite while loop and use the read() method to read the frames using the above created object.
• Use cv2.imshow() method to show the frames in the video.
• Breaks the loop when the user clicks a specific key.

Below is the implementation.

# import the opencv library
import cv2


# define a video capture object
vid = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

while(True):

    # Capture the video frame
    # by frame
    ret, frame = vid.read()

    # Display the resulting frame
    cv2.imshow('frame', frame)

    # the 'q' button is set as the
    # quitting button you may use any
    # desired button of your choice
    if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
        break

# After the loop release the cap object
vid.release()
# Destroy all the windows
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

Output: