Digitus USB Webcam
I ordered one of these earlier this week and it should be here tomorrow. The idea is to try and use it for live video work with UMPCs. It’s got auto focus and a LED lamp but the build, lens, sensitivity and drivers are all unknowns. If everything works out, it should work out well for handheld UMCP and live Ustream work.
Product details here. I paid 30 Euro on Amazon.de for it. Don’t order until i’ve tested it ;-)
Update: Mads has done some research into snake-cams. Thanks!
I really appreciate infos and tests about webcams,microphones and other usb accessories.
Got a very similar webcam from Philips. It does not keep its position and slowly bends back. I hope yours is doing better. Cheers :)
Might have to take sticky tape with me!!
Thanks for the tip.
S
!!!! FINALLY !!!!
:D That has got to be a liquid lens varioptic webcam that’s been rebranded!
It’s been a bloody well 7 months:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/varioptic-liquid-lenses-now-shipping-in-snakecam-webcam/
The one you got looks just like the one philips makes, but it’s supposed to be much better quality according to the specs.
Be sure to check if it has a microphone, like the engadget specs say. Also, if you can somehow find the rebranded 2.0 megapixel model that would be awesome too, because it seems like the one you got is 1,3.
There’s some other alternatives; I aquired a clique hue HD on eBay from some guy in hong kong for 27$ shipped to Denmark a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been quite happy with it so far:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R40&dfsp=32&satitle=clique+hue+hd&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=32&fsoo=2
Clique appears to have closed up shop, so you can’t get drivers from a trusted source online anymore, which sucks, but I found some that are trojan free (so far at least) =]
The clique is 1.3 megapixels, it has built in audio recording that is reasonably directional, and it seems to be still rigid enough after 2 weeks of abuse. But it does not have autofocus and liquid lens like this one does =]
Suggestion: If you could do a comparison between the various USB snake cams, that would be really nice. But the only real contenders are the philips one, the ones from varioptic, and the clique, according to my research.
Mmm. Varioptic.
I’d rather see traditional focus system but if it works, why not!
Does it have an LED lamp?
THis should arrive today so i’ll post something later.
Steve
Actually, what I meant to say was, the Digitus Flexi Webcam you ordered looks like it is actually a rebranded Varioptic S1300.
Try to compare the picture you posted above with the one from engadget:
This is the Varioptic:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/06/6-25-08snakecam.jpg
This is the Digitus:
http://www.umpcportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/digituscam-274×300.jpg
Uncanny resemblence right?
Apparently, Varioptic is a chinese company that only sells to distributors and resellers that rebrand it; I have been aching to try out the Varioptic s2000 but the fact that it’ll appear under a different name makes it tricky to get at, even if it’s technically been available for 7 months.
With regards to your question about LED lightning: As far as I am aware, only the Varioptic/Digitus and philips gooseneck cam (or snake cam as some call it) has an LED light.
Here’s a link to the philips one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GBPI0A/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
Anyway, I gathered up the research I’ve done on what’s when it comes to gooseneck/snake USB cams if anybody is interested:
http://tejlgaard.blogspot.com/2009/01/snake-webcams.html
Also, a couple of comments on LED’s :
If you really need an LED light for mobile video recording, I would suggest getting a LED gooseneck light in addition to the webcam; I have several, they are really cheap(15$ a pop at retail), they run for a good 20 hours on a couple of AAA’s, and they are super handy.
That way, you can also mod in a super powerful LED in easily because LED’s are completely interchangeable and all you need is to solder on the right resistor to guard it. You can’t really do that if you mod the LED in a USB driven webcam without knowing what you’re doing I don’t think.
The price on a mega-powerful LED at any electronics store (think really uncomfortable to look straight at) is also very good (10$ will get you very far), and you can drive them all off of a 9volt battery…though battery life may suffer a bit if you get something insane XD.
Or if you really want it to be all in one package, you could probably mount a tiny external LED housing on most of these webcams with some superglue and a bit of DIY soldering work. LED’s are super easy to work with in that respect.
In fact, now that I think about it, one of the webcams I stumbled accross came with 4 infrared LED’s (it had ceased production and was sold out, but I think it’s on the list I posted on my blog).
But since most cam sensors can easily pick up infrared light, you could mount a couple of powerful infrared LED’s on almost any webcam, put it in Black-White mode, and then you’d be able to shoot webcasts in basically any conditions. It might not look pretty, but it would be light, if wrapped up properly pretty durable, and low power.
Tejlgaard
Hi. Thanks for the info. I’ve added it into the main post for reference.
Steve