Here is my experience with USB webcams thus far (I've used several different ones now because of the work I'm currently doing). Logitec Web and Express cams have poor quality in general. Maximum res of 352X288 and not very many frames/second. Really depends on your application. The Logitec Quickcam Pro 3000, which retails at Fry's for $99.99, does 640x480, but only if you have installed a decompression module that is available in binary format only for i386 and PowerPC. Otherwise, it seems you can only get 160x120 from it. The drivers are quite good for it though. It's "crosslisted" as a Phillips 730 webcam....check out http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/ I'd caution against using the Winnov Videum Traveller 2.0 cam. I've been using vcat and vctrl (a frame capture and camera setting applications) and have only been able to get 176X176 or a little higher if it's not square. The driver may have changed a little, as I'm using this on a Compaq iPaq. I was capturing native YUYV format, converting it to YUV 4:1:1 format, and feeding it to a JPEG encoder. Also, depending on your applications, all drivers for these cams support varying colour [sic] spaces. I would have to concur that if you want to capture, edit, and produce video, a DV camera + firewire solution is the only way to go (3-CCD cams should be preferred...ie: Canon GL1/XL1, Sonly VX2000). Cheers, Brian Code
