The ESP32-CAM camera module is a small and compact design, based on an ESP32 chip with an OV2640 2MP camera, built-in flash, and also supports OV7670 cameras. It is fully compliant with WiFi 802.11b/g/n/e/i and Bluetooth 4.2 standards, has 9 GPIO ports, and supports UART/SPI/I2C/PWM and other interfaces.

ESP32-CAM features:

• The smallest 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi BT SoC module
• Low power 32-bit CPU,can also serve the application processor
• Up to 160MHz clock speed, summary computing power up to 600 DMIPS
• Built-in 520 KB SRAM, external 4MPSRAM
• Supports UART/SPI/I2C/PWM/ADC/DAC
• Support OV2640 and OV7670 cameras, built-in flash lamp
• Support image WiFI upload
• Support TF card
• Supports multiple sleep modes
• Embedded Lwip and FreeRTOS
• Supports STA/AP/STA+AP operation mode
• Support Smart Config/AirKiss technology
• Support for serial port local and remote firmware upgrades (FOTA)

Uploading code using FTDI:

Connect the ESP32-CAM board to your computer using an FTDI programmer. Follow the diagram below:

Many FTDI programmers have a jumper that allows you to select 3.3V or 5V. Make sure the jumper is in the right place to select 5V.

Note: ESP32-CAM doesn’t come with FTDI.

To upload the code, follow the next steps:

1) Go to Tools > Board and select AI-Thinker ESP32-CAM.

2) Go to Tools > Port and select the COM port the ESP32 is connected to.

3) Then, click the upload button to upload the code.

4) When you start to see some dots on the debugging window, you may need to press the ESP32-CAM on-board RST button if it doesn’t go automatically into flashing mode.

After a few seconds, the code should be successfully uploaded to your board.

Resources:

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-cam-video-streaming-face-recognition-arduino-ide/