Yes, using the FrameWallClock like that should be fine.
The SensorTimestamp in the frame is actually the time since the system booted, so you can use that too. Arguably it's a bit simpler if everything is happening on a single system, since we aren't relying on the wallclock time being recovered accurately (though it is, and so it's fine to use it!). But anyway, clock_gettime (actually in both C/C++ and Python) will fetch the time since boot for you if you want it.
The documentation that you refer to is indeed a bit useless. It's slightly better here, but it's a bit disappointing that a search for "timestamp" doesn't find it, yet a search for "SensorTimestamp" does. Go figure, I guess.
Also, just wondering if there's a particular reason why you want to use C++? I only ask because all this kind of stuff has already been done in Python, it's as trivial as starting the camera, leaving it running, and using "request = picam2.capture_request(flush=True)".
The SensorTimestamp in the frame is actually the time since the system booted, so you can use that too. Arguably it's a bit simpler if everything is happening on a single system, since we aren't relying on the wallclock time being recovered accurately (though it is, and so it's fine to use it!). But anyway, clock_gettime (actually in both C/C++ and Python) will fetch the time since boot for you if you want it.
The documentation that you refer to is indeed a bit useless. It's slightly better here, but it's a bit disappointing that a search for "timestamp" doesn't find it, yet a search for "SensorTimestamp" does. Go figure, I guess.
Also, just wondering if there's a particular reason why you want to use C++? I only ask because all this kind of stuff has already been done in Python, it's as trivial as starting the camera, leaving it running, and using "request = picam2.capture_request(flush=True)".
Statistics: Posted by therealdavidp — Fri Feb 20, 2026 9:00 am