Choosing Webcams

Posted by on 09/20 at 12:34 PM Permalink
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I can remember my first encounter with a Web camera (or webcam, for short). It was in the early 1990s, and the item in question was perched atop the computer monitor of a friend’s desktop pc. It looked like a large, white, and evil eyeball. The video that the webcam picked up was choppy and in grayscale. But I can still remember how neat I thought that whole thing was.

Times change, and technology gets better. And so has the quality and variety of uses of webcams. Sure, you can still use a webcam to watch the cat or a pot of coffee, or to record silly hijinks. But you can do much more with one. Like record high-quality videos and and do audio/video conferencing over the Web.

Like choosing any other peripheral, picking the right webcam can be tough.  This TechTip looks at some of the factors you should consider when you decide that a webcam is for you. 

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    Posted by harold ayers  on  09/20  at  01:35 PM

  1. Great article, as a grandfathter, and father of children that have moved away, I was wondering just what I could use for video conversations.

    Will you be doing an article on IP based video cameras. I’m confused about which type to get.

    thanks

    2. Posted by Aaron Romine  on  09/21  at  04:38 AM

  2. Not trying to be critical, but I think video cards have very little to do with processing webcam shots.  In fact, most codec decoding happens on the CPU (unless the codec is accelerated through the video card).  If you pushing HD (even then CPU would accomplish the heavy lifting), then maybe, but we’re talking about a camera way outside the normal QVGA or VGA resolutions your article mentions.

    Most VGA cameras, even pushing higher FPS, will be fine with a decent modern cpu.

    The most limiting factor for web cams is usually network bandwidth, and cpu compression/decoding going on in apps like skype (most of which can’t be offloaded to the graphics card).

    I apologize if I’m wrong, but I’ve been running web cams on super high end machines, and low-end Pentium-M machines with integrated graphics with very little difference.

    3. Posted by shamim  on  09/25  at  09:39 AM

  3. Would you please give some computer tips about webcam which will be running without hardware?

    4. Posted by pcrepairmontreal.com  on  10/04  at  04:30 PM

  4. Good article,it is also important to mention that we have to be thankfull that webcam prices have decreased so much lately which made it easier for people to be able to buy webcam and make video conference.

    5. Posted by needinfo321  on  10/06  at  08:00 AM

  5. can a webcam record from anywhere or only your desktop

    6. Posted by Shopping Cart  on  10/15  at  02:59 AM

  6. I have enjoy the reading of this blog. I have no idea about using web com with out using of any hardware.

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