Thanks for checking in. The linked thread is actually about a different error, but provided some interesting clues.
I believe the example project that I based my camera app on is now woefully out of date: GitHub - balena-io-playground/balena-rpi-python-picamera: balena + python + raspberry pi camera module
For some reason updating my Raspi Zero’s BalenaOS to “2.83.21+rev1” broke the code as per my original post. Unfortunately I don’t know what my previous OS version was and the whole device dropped offline soon after I remotely shut down all services to prevent it from crash looping for days. Maybe the SD card filled up and prevents booting now.
I think I have two ways forward:
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Downgrade to OS to something from last summer until it works. Not ideal for obvious long-term reasons.
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Rewrite the Python app to use the upcoming (and still experimental) picamera2 library that is based on the same, new libcamera library used in the new official tutorial that was posted a month ago and mentioned in the other bug thread: GitHub - balena-io-playground/libcamera-apps: Example repo to showcase Raspberry Pi's new libcamera stack on balenaOS
Unfortunately, my physical device is deployed far out on the field and it will take me a few weeks at least to get a full repro on the Zero hardware, but I’ll try this approach on another Pi model hopefully soon. I’ll report back on the results.
To anyone curious, the use case is this: https://homelab.haila.fi/after-sunrise
Might I suggest removing the outdated picamera Python sample code in case someone else bumps into this same issue? I’m happy to share a working version of mine after I get it rewritten on top of picamera2 