[H-GEN] Webcam recommendation sought

Paul Gearon pag at PISoftware.com
Tue Apr 29 22:18:49 EDT 2003


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On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Ewan Edwards wrote:

> I have been asked to buy one of those "webcam" devices for work.
<snip/>
> Any short simple advice will be appreciated.

Don't buy Logitech.  I have one, and it works... but it's not great.
Logitech won't supply any specs, so it's all reverse engineered, which has
led to some limitations (colour mapping, light intensity, no sound for the
built in mike, etc).

Also, the drivers for the various models haven't made it into the main
kernel, mostly due to instability, though some models' drivers are more
stable than others.

Your best bet is to stick to cameras supported in the main kernel sources.
The Creative Labs WebCams and PC-CAM are all supported by the kernel
option "USB OV511 Camera support", so that seems like a safe bet to me.

Actually, OV511 supports quite a lot of cameras.  Check out:
  http://alpha.dyndns.org/ov511/cameras.html

For other kernel-supported cameras, look at:
  http://www.linux-usb.org/ibmcam/
  http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/
  http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~j.vreeken/se401/
  http://stv0680-usb.sourceforge.net/
  http://homeconnectusb.sourceforge.net/ (EXPERIMENTAL)

Regards,
Paul Gearon

Software Engineer                Telephone:   +61 7 3876 2188
Plugged In Software              Fax:         +61 7 3876 4899
http://www.PIsoftware.com        PGP Key available via finger

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum
immane mittam.
(Translation from latin: "I have a catapult. Give me all the money,
or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.")



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