diff --git a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb
index 879ab1c..f5f970b 100644
--- a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb
+++ b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb
@@ -8,3 +8,8 @@ DESCRIPTION = "OpenGlow/ForgeFIRM image for Glowforge"
 # see kas/README.md backlog #5). Removing it here (override only; the shared
 # glowforge-image base is untouched) also sidesteps its do_package failure.
 IMAGE_INSTALL:remove = "gfui-client"
+
+# Camera bring-up tooling: v4l-utils provides v4l2-ctl (the media-ctl binary is
+# already pulled in) for configuring the imx-media pipeline and grabbing frames
+# while the gfhardware capture path is ported off the factory NXP V4L2 model.
+IMAGE_INSTALL:append = " v4l-utils"