I have a 3Com Homeconnect camera. It is pretty good camera, (I also have a Logitech QuickCam and the 3Com has a better picture). But I'm not overly impressed.... The Logitech isn't as good, but costs a lot less too...
Is there quite a bit of a noticeable difference when you say it has a better picture? (just a bit unsure because you added you weren't overly impressed with the 3com, does that mean the logitech was similar or was just plain bad?)
I just saw a FireWire PCI add-in card at FutureShop, are there even webcams that support FireWire?
I was going to get the 3com cam, but ended up getting the EZ Cam Pro
Very sharp and clear pic - especially in good lighting conditions, can be a bit grainy in low light.
My mate has the more expensive Kodak DVC 325 which is very slow and sluggish (laggy) by comparison - it got very good reviews though!
My old cam was a Philips with C210 capture card - same 30fps as the Ezonics. However the cam broke down twice returned once under warranty and then went "phut" 10 months later
Whatever you go for - see it in action - don't just read the box!!!
If you are using video conferencing programs online, max frame rates will mean nothing - my 30fps cam can get less than 1fps using Dwyco or Paltalk
Capture card and cam is better but for the money USB is hard to beat.
Very sharp and clear pic - especially in good lighting conditions, can be a bit grainy in low light.
My mate has the more expensive Kodak DVC 325 which is very slow and sluggish (laggy) by comparison - it got very good reviews though!
My old cam was a Philips with C210 capture card - same 30fps as the Ezonics. However the cam broke down twice returned once under warranty and then went "phut" 10 months later
Whatever you go for - see it in action - don't just read the box!!!
If you are using video conferencing programs online, max frame rates will mean nothing - my 30fps cam can get less than 1fps using Dwyco or Paltalk
Capture card and cam is better but for the money USB is hard to beat.
I have a kodak webcam. A picture I took with it is in the link. I found that you can improve the framerate with the camera if you change the format it compresses in. The last 2 are the ones best for framerate...i don't know about quality though. Overall, its a decent cam...much sturdier than the logitech quick cam that I had.
edit: here's a firewire webcam. 120 dollars though...ouch.
edit: here's a firewire webcam. 120 dollars though...ouch.
I forgot to say I also have a Creative Webcam II, picture does not compare in anyway to the Ezonics cam, however, I got it free from a mate who never used it - so in that sense it's great for my secondary system.
here is a Snapshot from my EZ Cam Pro...this is also not in good lighting - fluorescent strip lighting gives excellent results - much sharper than this. I'm sitting under 60Watts of light in that shot.
here is a Snapshot from my EZ Cam Pro...this is also not in good lighting - fluorescent strip lighting gives excellent results - much sharper than this. I'm sitting under 60Watts of light in that shot.
Thanks for the info GTD, I saw a EZ Cam Pro today actually, but I didn't really pay it much attention since nobody had mentioned it before, I'll have to take a second look now!
Awesome, a FireWire webcam, Loogie, do you know of any others? or even how this one performs? I was about to get the 3Com one anyways, which is around $120 already, if it's better, I'd rather get this thing? (even though I'd also have to get two pci cards)
Edit: Just found another FireWire WebCam if anybody wants to know, it's at http://www.adstech.com/
Awesome, a FireWire webcam, Loogie, do you know of any others? or even how this one performs? I was about to get the 3Com one anyways, which is around $120 already, if it's better, I'd rather get this thing? (even though I'd also have to get two pci cards)
Edit: Just found another FireWire WebCam if anybody wants to know, it's at http://www.adstech.com/
If you follow the instructions to install the EZ Cam Pro it is very easy to install indeed.
Simply install software - plug cam in - windows driver database routine - and away you go
It was not like this for me at first as I had my driver for my old C210 card and it would not install properly. Even with the card uninstalled it would not work properly.
After testing it on my work PC and installing effortlessly (a PC with an SiS chipset that is known to cause problems according to the supplied documentation),I formatted my C: drive at home and all was well
Partitions are the greatest things at times
Simply install software - plug cam in - windows driver database routine - and away you go
It was not like this for me at first as I had my driver for my old C210 card and it would not install properly. Even with the card uninstalled it would not work properly.
After testing it on my work PC and installing effortlessly (a PC with an SiS chipset that is known to cause problems according to the supplied documentation),I formatted my C: drive at home and all was well
Partitions are the greatest things at times
Brian: Wow, that's a nice picture even though it was downsized, I didn't think there'd be so few colour patches, out of curiousity, how much did you downsize the pic by?
GTD: Haha, I know, partitions saved me well except the one time I had to break a RAID 0 with 30GB of data on it, switched it to normal 2 HDDs into 3 partitions....lucky I had friends networked, dumped all the data onto their drives =)
Is anybody here up to speed on this FireWire stuff? I'm REALLY interested now, I want to know what these things can do! I found a decent package I think here: http://www.computervideogear.com/firewire-cameras/ibot-firewire-desktop-video-camera-with-firewire-card.htm It comes with the WebCam, Cable, Software, AND a FireWire PCI Card, and I can buy a mic separate (damn thing looks like it came straight off a Mac)
but how do these things run? Quality? Reliability? Compatibility?
GTD: Haha, I know, partitions saved me
well except the one time I had to break a RAID 0 with 30GB of data on it, switched it to normal 2 HDDs into 3 partitions....lucky I had friends networked, dumped all the data onto their drives =)Is anybody here up to speed on this FireWire stuff? I'm REALLY interested now, I want to know what these things can do! I found a decent package I think here: http://www.computervideogear.com/firewire-cameras/ibot-firewire-desktop-video-camera-with-firewire-card.htm It comes with the WebCam, Cable, Software, AND a FireWire PCI Card, and I can buy a mic separate (damn thing looks like it came straight off a Mac)
but how do these things run? Quality? Reliability? Compatibility?
I don't have any experience with the firewire cams, but if what they say is true...60fps@640x480 would be really sweet. I think that compression would cut that figure down though, but I'm not sure. Also, I think streaming 60 fps would be rather bandwidth heavy. I think you should just stick with usb for ease.
Oh, a picture I took with my webcam is in my sig. Its undoctored and was taken with just light from the window.
Oh, a picture I took with my webcam is in my sig. Its undoctored and was taken with just light from the window.
"Brian: Wow, that's a nice picture even though it was downsized, I didn't think there'd be so few colour patches, out of curiousity, how much did you downsize the pic by?"
I usually downsize pics to 75% or the original size. That pic is downsized quite a bit, to 60% I think. The smaller downsized pics always look better than the fullsized one. That pic I posted was just a quick, "I am gonna take a pic of myself" attempt. I did not mess with the lighting or focus on the cam.
I usually downsize pics to 75% or the original size. That pic is downsized quite a bit, to 60% I think. The smaller downsized pics always look better than the fullsized one. That pic I posted was just a quick, "I am gonna take a pic of myself" attempt. I did not mess with the lighting or focus on the cam.
I have 2 3com homeconnect webcams and I think they are quite excellent.. By the way the 3com cameras are made by a company called Vista Imaging. Here is a link to a gallery of images made by the 3com/Vicam webcams. Image Gallery
again.. Very excellent image quality in daylight and low light situations.
if you want more reviews go to Review Finder
OH!!! By the way.. you can also change the lenses on the 3com HomeConnect cams!!! Lens pack
again.. Very excellent image quality in daylight and low light situations.
if you want more reviews go to Review Finder
OH!!! By the way.. you can also change the lenses on the 3com HomeConnect cams!!! Lens pack
Thanks for all the feedback, I think I'm going to take a chance though. I know absolutely nothing about the FireWire cams, and it seems nobody else does either out on the net, except that CuSeeMe doesn't support it. I plan on using NetMeeting.
I was thinking of getting the 3Com with the lens pack, would be pretty fun to play around with
What I'm really curious about though is how NetMeeting compresses the data, we'll be going through ADSL/Cable modems, so bandwidth won't be too restricted. Coming out of the FireWire cam everything will be totally uncompressed (hence the need for the 200Mbps bandwidth that it'll take out of the FireWire channel).
Besides, I've always liked new cutting edge stuff I'll test it out and tell you guys what it's like! I hope it's worth it though!
I was thinking of getting the 3Com with the lens pack, would be pretty fun to play around with
What I'm really curious about though is how NetMeeting compresses the data, we'll be going through ADSL/Cable modems, so bandwidth won't be too restricted. Coming out of the FireWire cam everything will be totally uncompressed (hence the need for the 200Mbps bandwidth that it'll take out of the FireWire channel).
Besides, I've always liked new cutting edge stuff
I'll test it out and tell you guys what it's like! I hope it's worth it though!Big tip for you here before you come back to us feeling p1ssed off.
DON'T EXPECT THE ADVERTISED FRAME RATES that are on the box or what you see when you use a video application on your computer WHEN YOU ARE CONNECTED VIA THE INTERNET
The frame rates can drop drastically to moving slide show speeds
The fastest video conferencing software I used in the past was Vdophone - but the images are slightly grainy.
Dwyco has slower but sharper imagery.
DON'T EXPECT THE ADVERTISED FRAME RATES that are on the box or what you see when you use a video application on your computer WHEN YOU ARE CONNECTED VIA THE INTERNET
The frame rates can drop drastically to moving slide show speeds
The fastest video conferencing software I used in the past was Vdophone - but the images are slightly grainy.
Dwyco has slower but sharper imagery.
I should also say you probably don't really need the greatest webcam if it's mainly for a bit of V2V with the girlfriend (*cough*)
The 3com has a great warranty though - 5 years I beleive, so it's potentially a very good buy combined with all the options and reviews.
I also find NM is a bit temperamental
(*cough*)The 3com has a great warranty though - 5 years I beleive, so it's potentially a very good buy combined with all the options and reviews.
I also find NM is a bit temperamental
Hehe, thanks for the warning Gavin, yeah I don't really expect those kinda framerates, but since the price is fairly close, and with FireWire cards I figure I'll try it out Even if it isn't the best, like you said, don't have to have the best for V2V (I didn't say that haha)
I'll check out VDO phone, I wonder why these applications actually have to support FireWire though, isn't it just another type of interface that programs should be able to access?
Edit: I won't come all pissed of, just with a flamethrower (and I'll have the firewire to power it)
Even if it isn't the best, like you said, don't have to have the best for V2V (I didn't say that haha)I'll check out VDO phone, I wonder why these applications actually have to support FireWire though, isn't it just another type of interface that programs should be able to access?
Edit: I won't come all pissed of, just with a flamethrower (and I'll have the firewire to power it)
Hey everybody, just thought I'd give you guys a little update on how the FireWire is going.
As you may know from reading I bought two ADS Pyro WebCams with the FireWire interface to setup between myself and my girlfriend.
The cams were shipped as expected, although slightly underpackaged in the big box. It was ok though since their original backing had so much open space already, they weren't in much danger of being crushed.
Installation went very smoothly, stick the FireWire card in, install the drivers for the card. Then install the drivers for the cam, THEN plug in the cam. No problems whatsoever.
Next, well I haven't tried out much of the software, I pretty much went straight to it's default Pyro WebCam software and NetMeeting. The picture was very clear locally, VERY clear, although slightly grainy in large size. It could learn from the 3Com's low light processing though, you need an average bit of light I suppose to get a good picture.
Next, local streaming was smooth, at the advertised 30FPS, you can see the very minimal bit of catchup that you'd expect at 30FPS. You have many options of resolution, unfortunately, so far I've only found that the default local webcam software supports the full 640x480 resolution.
NetMeeting for some reason is ok for one person, but the other party is fairly choppy. AND it bumps it down to 320x240. Streaming over the net was ok, but could have been better.
I went with another option that a kind individual on this forum pointed me to, VDOPhone. I'm pretty sure that it's been discontinued, but for a 3 year old product it works very well. The internet PC-to-PC connection is very smooth with the cams, clear, although you can't really read text on a paper (just so you don't think it's THAT clear). However this is most likely because it is also limited to a 320x240 resolution. (If you know of a program that supports higher I'd REALLY like to know!!)
Voice communication at the same time is also decent, there is obviously the lag time, but it syncs pretty well with the video. A note with VDOPhone though, after 30 minutes the audio really really degraded for me. A quick session restart fixes it every time though.
All in all I'm happy with my purchase, if you have any questions about it feel free to ask!
As you may know from reading I bought two ADS Pyro WebCams with the FireWire interface to setup between myself and my girlfriend.
The cams were shipped as expected, although slightly underpackaged in the big box. It was ok though since their original backing had so much open space already, they weren't in much danger of being crushed.
Installation went very smoothly, stick the FireWire card in, install the drivers for the card. Then install the drivers for the cam, THEN plug in the cam. No problems whatsoever.
Next, well I haven't tried out much of the software, I pretty much went straight to it's default Pyro WebCam software and NetMeeting. The picture was very clear locally, VERY clear, although slightly grainy in large size. It could learn from the 3Com's low light processing though, you need an average bit of light I suppose to get a good picture.
Next, local streaming was smooth, at the advertised 30FPS, you can see the very minimal bit of catchup that you'd expect at 30FPS. You have many options of resolution, unfortunately, so far I've only found that the default local webcam software supports the full 640x480 resolution.
NetMeeting for some reason is ok for one person, but the other party is fairly choppy. AND it bumps it down to 320x240. Streaming over the net was ok, but could have been better.
I went with another option that a kind individual on this forum pointed me to, VDOPhone. I'm pretty sure that it's been discontinued, but for a 3 year old product it works very well. The internet PC-to-PC connection is very smooth with the cams, clear, although you can't really read text on a paper (just so you don't think it's THAT clear). However this is most likely because it is also limited to a 320x240 resolution. (If you know of a program that supports higher I'd REALLY like to know!!)
Voice communication at the same time is also decent, there is obviously the lag time, but it syncs pretty well with the video. A note with VDOPhone though, after 30 minutes the audio really really degraded for me. A quick session restart fixes it every time though.
All in all I'm happy with my purchase, if you have any questions about it feel free to ask!
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