diff --git a/app/main.py b/app/main.py
index d87ec63..e74cca1 100644
--- a/app/main.py
+++ b/app/main.py
@@ -769,6 +769,63 @@ async def camera_snapshot(camera_id: UUID):
     return Response(content=data, media_type="image/jpeg")
 
 
+@app.get("/api/cameras/{camera_id}/stream")
+async def camera_stream(camera_id: UUID):
+    """Live MJPEG passthrough for one camera.
+
+    Browsers render multipart/x-mixed-replace responses natively inside an
+    <img> tag, so proxying the camera's own MJPEG stream through here gives a
+    true live preview in the map popup (no player, no JS). Single-frame JPEG
+    endpoints also work — they render as a static image.
+    """
+    from camera_models import cameras as cam_table
+    from fastapi.responses import StreamingResponse
+    import httpx
+
+    async with async_session() as session:
+        url = (await session.execute(
+            select(cam_table.c.snapshot_url).where(cam_table.c.id == camera_id)
+        )).scalar_one_or_none()
+    if not url:
+        raise HTTPException(404, "Camera or snapshot not found")
+    if not str(url).lower().startswith(("http://", "https://")):
+        raise HTTPException(400, "URL is not streamable over HTTP")
+
+    # connect timeout short so dead cams fail fast; read timeout None because
+    # an MJPEG stream legitimately idles between frames.
+    client = httpx.AsyncClient(
+        timeout=httpx.Timeout(5.0, read=None), follow_redirects=True,
+        headers={"User-Agent": "osint-dashboard-camera-view/1.0"},
+    )
+    try:
+        req = client.build_request("GET", url)
+        resp = await client.send(req, stream=True)
+        if resp.status_code != 200 or len(resp.headers.get("content-type", "")) == 0:
+            await resp.aclose()
+            await client.aclose()
+            raise HTTPException(502, "Stream unavailable")
+    except HTTPException:
+        raise
+    except Exception:
+        await client.aclose()
+        raise HTTPException(502, "Stream unavailable")
+
+    async def gen():
+        try:
+            async for chunk in resp.aiter_bytes():
+                yield chunk
+        finally:
+            await resp.aclose()
+            await client.aclose()
+
+    ctype = resp.headers.get("content-type", "")
+    media = ctype if "multipart" in ctype.lower() else (
+        ctype if "image/" in ctype.lower()
+        else "multipart/x-mixed-replace; boundary=frame"
+    )
+    return StreamingResponse(gen(), media_type=media)
+
+
 # ── News pipeline (scraper + summarizer) ──────────────────────────────────
 # Backing data for the frontend news panel. Written by the vendored
 # news-scraper (hourly Scrapy crawl) and news-summarizer (hourly Gemini
diff --git a/app/static/index.html b/app/static/index.html
index 442fe14..0dc38e2 100644
--- a/app/static/index.html
+++ b/app/static/index.html
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@
         .lp-error { color: var(--red); font-size: 0.68rem; }
         /* ── Camera popup thumbnail ───────────────────────────────── */
         .cam-pop { min-width: 210px; max-width: 260px; }
-        .cam-pop .thumb { width: 100%; height: 120px; object-fit: cover; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid var(--border); margin: 0.3rem 0; box-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(56,189,248,0.25); background: #0b1220; }
+        .cam-pop .thumb { width: 100%; height: 160px; object-fit: cover; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid var(--border); margin: 0.3rem 0; box-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(56,189,248,0.25); background: #0b1220; }
         .cam-pop .thumb.placeholder { display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; color: var(--muted); font-size: 0.7rem; height: 80px; }
         .cam-pop table { width: 100%; font-size: 0.72rem; border-collapse: collapse; }
         .cam-pop td { padding: 0.12rem 0.2rem; vertical-align: top; }
@@ -1026,12 +1026,15 @@ function esc(s) {
         c => ({'&':'&amp;','<':'&lt;','>':'&gt;','"':'&quot;',"'":'&#39;'}[c]));
 }
 function camThumb(c) {
-    // Live snapshot proxied through the backend TTL cache. Only render the
-    // <img> when the camera actually has a snapshot URL (else the backend
-    // 404s); onerror swaps to a placeholder so a dead cam never breaks layout.
-    if (!c.snapshot_url) return '<div class="thumb placeholder">no snapshot available</div>';
-    const onerr = "this.classList.add('placeholder'); this.onerror=null; this.alt='snapshot unavailable'; this.removeAttribute('src');";
-    return `<img class="thumb" src="/api/cameras/${esc(c.id)}/snapshot" alt="live snapshot" loading="lazy" onerror="${onerr}">`;
+    // Live preview: stream endpoint proxies the camera's own MJPEG feed, which
+    // browsers render natively in an <img>. Fallback chain on error:
+    //   live stream → TTL-cached snapshot → placeholder.
+    if (!c.snapshot_url || !c.id) return '<div class="thumb placeholder">no preview available</div>';
+    const onerr = (
+        "if (!this.dataset.f) { this.dataset.f='1'; this.src='/api/cameras/" + esc(c.id) + "/snapshot'; } " +
+        "else { this.classList.add('placeholder'); this.onerror=null; this.alt='preview unavailable'; this.removeAttribute('src'); }"
+    );
+    return `<img class="thumb" src="/api/cameras/${esc(c.id)}/stream" alt="live camera preview" loading="lazy" onerror="${onerr}">`;
 }
 async function loadCams() {
     if (!map) return;