good idea not to waste money
and also to reuse old things,
but as you talk about using a ?big? PC together with a ?good? mobile
to save some money for a camera??
how about a total different setup: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/
- raspberry pi 3B+ 38$
- 8Mpix camera 25$
- Raspbian Linux OS and Processing 3.4 FREE
( ok, plus uSD card and power supply )
just a idea…