Advice on which webcam to buy

[Solorize]

Hi,

I am thinking of getting a webcam but I am a bit unsure
which one to get. I have been reading through this forum
but am still unsure.

The features I am looking for are:

1.
Needs to be wireless as my PC room is at the front
of my house and I would like to install in a room
at the rear of my property.

2.
I would like it to be mains powered, therefore I would
have it installed inside the house, pointing out of
a berdoom window. I know this would not be ideal
but I dont really want to have it surface mounted on
the outside of my house.

3.
How easy will it be to set-up and get to display to
a webpage with Cumulus? I have seen posts regarding
software called YAWCAM.

Any pointers would be appreciated

[fractonimbus]

Gina and others can probably comment on wireless cameras, but I have found Yawcam (free) very good with two different wired cameras - a little cheap Logitech and a Microsoft Lifecam Cinema. The Logitech was good considering it was sitting at the bottom of my junk drawer, but I have found the Lifecam excellent. Both webcams are stuck on the inside of my window (with heavy duty double sided tape and the image quality is very good. Take a look in about 10 hours time (link via the page linked to from my sig image below) when it's daytime here. The offline shot (up now) was captured by Yawcam from the Lifecam of a night time thunderstorm some 20 miles north of here, three day ago.

DN

[Solorize]

fractonimbus, thanks for your reply.

Think I will check out Microsoft Lifecam Cinema camera
and also have a look around and see what else similar
is about too.

[seabreeze3]

Aside from the outdoor camera you can see on my site, I have one of these mounted inside a window.

Once I have a little more time I'll start uploading images to a new page. It's a wireless IP camera, has a wide angle lens, pan and tilt control through the user interface and (if you think it has any use) two way communications through the camera to your computer. I've had it running non-stop for over a month now with no trouble at all. Although it's not mentioned in the specs, it also has automatic exposure control. The infra-red lights (for night illumination) are user controllable through the user interface.

I use Yawcam for my outdoor camera. It serves the system well. I am also testing iSpy. The iSpy does not have the handy text overlays offered by Yawcam but it does allow more than one camera to run in one instance and upload on separate schedules. So far, I quite like it.

Hope that helps.

Dave

[nking]

Aside from the outdoor camera you can see on my site, I have one of these mounted inside a window.

I use Yawcam for my outdoor camera. It serves the system well. I am also testing iSpy. The iSpy does not have the handy text overlays offered by Yawcam but it does allow more than one camera to run in one instance and upload on separate schedules. So far, I quite like it.

Hope that helps.

Dave

Hi Dave,

How does the picture compare with the outside camera?

Have you experienced any hiccups witht the latest version of yawcam (0.3.5)?

Thanks

[seabreeze3]

How does the picture compare with the outside camera?

Have you experienced any hiccups witht the latest version of yawcam (0.3.5)?

Thanks

The picture is good. It's a little too far away from the window which is giving me a bit of reflection (and the window needs a cleaning). It has a much wider angle than the outside camera and provides an excellent sky view. The automatic exposure control arguably makes it better than the outdoor camera, so I'll say it's a better picture. I love the pan and tilt. I can drop it down to the front garden beds and watch the bunnies munching on my broccoli crop. It also has preset angles which I can schedule on the user interface.

I haven't experienced anything odd which I can attribute to Yawcam. I've had the occasional upload glitch which I blame on my ISP not logging in FTP from time to time. Unfortunately, once that happens Yawcam does not automatically resume FTP despite having disabled "stay connected" and enabled "silent retry on error". So, once it encounters an upload error it requires a restart.

[Solorize]

After a bit of a break looking for webcams, I have decided to start looking again.

I will probably go for a Microsoft Life cam but am unsure which wireless one to go for.

Looking on the page here http://www.microsoft.com/uk/hardware/di ... &WT.srch=1
there are quite a few options and price ranges.

Could anyone point me in the direction of which one would be a good one to
get, nothing too expensive, but I would like to have good picture quality, if it means
spending a bit more so be it.

Any help would be appreciated.

[nking]

I think you'll find that none of the microsoft cams are wireless.
This one is pretty good and if you look around you can get it half the price, try Amazon first.

LifeCam Cinema™
Part Number:H5D-00003
• 720p HD widescreen
• Auto Focus
• High-precision glass element lens
• ClearFrame Technology
• Digital Microphone
• Aluminum Body

[Gina]

Yes, I have two of those - one for my south facing weather-cam and the other I've modified to use as an image sensor for astrophotography (lunar, and planetary only - can't be modified for long exposure).

[Solorize]

nking / Gina, thanks for your replies.

btw. do you know how long the USB cable is?

As need to make sure I can get it to reach the
window from my server.

[nking]

I would guess approx. 6 ft but you can get a usb extension lead up to 5 meters (a little under 16 feet 5 inches).

[Gina]

Yes, I would say 5 or 6 ft. I use an extension USB cable.

[Solorize]

After cleaning up under my TV cabinet I found my old Playstation3 Eye, which got me
thinking if I could use it as a webcam on my PC.

So after a bit of looking around the inet I found a Windows driver
that someone has created that will allow it to be used with Windows.
http://codelaboratories.com/products/eye/driver/

Instruction on how to install:
http://www.nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/2921/


After downloading and installing it I got it working with
Yawcam.

So now I am just awaiting a USB extension cable so I can test
it viewing out of my window and see how it fares. As at the moment the
cable that comes attached to the PS3 Eye is no long enough to
get it to reach my window.

[Solorize]

I have been testing my "PlayStation 3 Eye" webcam out this evening
on my laptop, and did a quick screen capture for you to see how the
image comes out.

The image has been saved as a *.PNG to keep the size
small, so does not represent that actuall full quality of the image.
But it shows enough of how the picture quality is in low light conditions.

The below screen capture was taken at about: 21:00




The below screen capture was taken at about: 22:15

The noise levels in this image are quite hight now
and are leaving quite a bit of grain. Also I am getting
the reflections of the curtains in the window which is
getting picked up on the camera.

I could push the camera tight up against the window,
but it would mean that the view would include my neighbours
property and I don't want to do that to protect thier privacy.

So I may have to get the camera turned off when it starts to get
dark, so I don't get the reflections. I think I saw something about
being able to turn on and off the recording in YawCam for each day of
the week.
But Does anyone know if there is a way to set YawCams on and off recording
for each month? So I could adjust it to suit the shift in daylight hours.






The below screen capture was taken at about: 08:00

[Gina]

There's a scheduler in YawCam where you can set it to turn on and off separately for FTP and File saving. It has settings for each hour of the day and each day of the week (in the form of a grid where you can turn individual boxes on or off). However, if you want to change it for different months, you have to alter the scheduler yourself. That's what I do. I use YawCam - best webcam app I've found.