I am a little bit confused about the MIPI interface on the ESP32p4 and the camera sensor that supports it. I noticed that a lot of camera sensors like i.e ov5640 come with a dedicated module board that I believe performs so level shifting of the camera signals. My question is why can't I connect the sensor directly using a ribbon cable? What is the missing part that the attached module does that is missing in the esp32p4.
For instance, here is a schematic diagram of the esp32p4 MIPI input:
Why can't I connect the sensor itself directly to this input?
Thanks!