Anaconda: cannot import cv2 even though opencv is installed (how to install opencv3 for python3)

Question

I have Anaconda (version: conda 4.2.9, python3) installed and am trying to do import cv2 when I get the following error:

ImportError: No module named 'cv2'

With conda search cv2 I get this:

  opencv                     2.4.2                np15py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np15py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np16py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np16py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np17py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np17py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np15py26_1  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np15py27_1  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np16py26_1  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np16py27_1  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np17py26_1  defaults        
                             2.4.2                np17py27_1  defaults        
                             2.4.6                np16py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.6                np16py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.6                np17py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.6                np17py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.6                np18py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.6                np18py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.9                np18py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.10               np19py26_0  defaults        
                             2.4.10               np19py27_0  defaults        
                             2.4.10              np110py27_1  defaults        
                             2.4.10               np19py26_1  defaults        
                             2.4.10               np19py27_1  defaults        

What do I need to do to be able to import the cv2 module?

I am using Ubuntu 16.04.

Answer 1

opencv is not compatible with python 3. I had to install opencv3 for python 3. The marked answer in how could we install opencv on anaconda? explains how to install opencv(3) for anaconda:

Run the following command:

conda install -c https://conda.binstar.org/menpo opencv

I realized that opencv3 is also available now, run the following command:

conda install -c https://conda.binstar.org/menpo opencv3

Edit on Aug 18, 2016: You may like to add the "menpo" channel permanently by:

conda config --add channels menpo

And then opencv can be installed by:

conda install opencv (or opencv3)

Edit on Aug 14, 2017: "clinicalgraphics" channel provides relatively newer vtk version for very recent python3

conda install -c clinicalgraphics vtk

Edit on April 16, 2020 (based on @AMC's comment): OpenCV can be installed through conda-forge (details see here)

conda install -c conda-forge opencv