Is it just me or is the quality of Pi devices falling?
For some 5 or 6 years I've had 3 "beast" cameras. A Pi Zero or Zero W and a V2.1 NOIR Pi camera board housed in the official pink & white cases. 2 in hedgehog "hotels" and one in a bird box. Great stuff.
I decided it was time to replace the bird box. It had weathered so much it was falling apart. So I bought 2 more new. I repurposed the camera to give a view of the driveway (with a separate IR flood light) Brilliant stuff.
Dug out 2 Pi zero (one W one not). Installed them into the pink cases and ordered 2 v2.1 NOIR cameras from "an official supplier". One camera arrived damaged - the lens had broken off the sensor. The other was just not recognised as present by either Pi Zero. (An old spare v2.1 camera (that doesn't do IR) worked perfectly.
Returned both cameras and got a refund. Meanwhile ordered 2 more camera boards from "a different official supplier". Installed them and both worked fine. For a while! One went "dead" after about 30mins.
So 3 out of 4 NEW v2.1 NOIR cameras failed and had to be returned.
So I ask the question is quality being skimped on? Are these still being manufactured?
I have a further half dozen Pi Zeros that I intend, one day, to press into service. I don't need or want the new 12Mpixel auto focus bells and whistles camera that need me to also get a new Pi Zero w2 to work. Would be serious overkill for a fixed 10x10cm nest at a distance of 16cm from the camera.
OK, that was a bit of a rant for which I apologise.