Apparatus, methods and systems for bridging between commercially available, high-speed image sensors and low cost, low power microcontrollers. An image sensor interface processor is provided for controlling an image sensor, and receiving and storing image data. A microcontroller (or other general purpose or image processor) can communicate with the image sensor interface processor, to access pixel data in a random access fashion through a parallel memory access interface at any speed desired by the microcontroller. Moreover, automatic power management of the image sensor can be provided by the image sensor interface processor. In some alternative embodiments, the described image sensor interface processor may be integrated into the image sensor itself, or a microcontroller, or some other intermediate device.