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Mark Said :
Can anyone recommend USB cameras which work well (or even at all) with Linux? What I want is between 2 and 4 cameras which will be fixed position and low framerate.
I will recant a recent tale involving me and some webcams (I will try and keep it short). About 3 or 4 months ago I purchased a Labtec webcam from a certain high street chain (begins with Arrr and ends with gos). After a small amount of research I found a driver for it and was fairly satisfied with the results (im satisfied if the picture looks vaguely like me ... ). This is good I thought now I need to get a second ( bought about 3 days ago) so that I can test point to point bidirectonal conferencing (gnomemeeting) with. So I went back to the same store and bought the same model for the same price (or so I thought). Turned out that the second one I bought had a different USB device Id. After some research I found that the driver for the previous camera I had bought is based on the "older" driver for the newly bought camera that I had just bought. In other words I had bought the newer version first and then the older version after (same make and seemgly model). Both cameras work but I have to admit the older (manufactured) version looks better. The moral of the story ? Well just like identical twins - theres always some difference somewhere. Look carefully before you buy (or use cash so the transaction is not traceable). Anyway if your after low frame rate and not too fussy about quality look at the Labtec offering at Arrr gos. Depending on the stock age of the model you get you will need one or other of the drivers here For older models 0x46d / Product Id 0x840 0x850 0x870 http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net/ For newer model 0x46d / Product Id 0x921 http://home.tiscali.dk/tomasgc/labtec/ My cameras where Product Id 0x921 and 0x870 and worked / worked better respectively, as to the the version you will get only the Gods (who like to play tricks on unsuspecting Linux Users) know. Caveat: Most of my experiance on the above has been based on gnomemeeting use, xawtv and other V4L applications are an unknown ! Definately avoid the ViewCam £25 2 for 1 offer in Argos (for the moment), there are people developing drivers ( I had a go myself and gave up) but little that is stable or published at the moment. Interestingly though a lot of the new webcams have the same SN9C102 chips for the USB control end of the camera, including cameras for specific purposes (eg microscopes and telescopes). It certainly would be nice to have a driver for these although SN9C102 supports various different sensors. I just wish sonix would write a linux driver (they support windows and mac). Tom. Information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is the intended solely for the person ( or persons) to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender, and please delete the message from your system immediately. The views in this message are personal, they are not necessarily those of Torbay Council. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.