hi,
For low-light environments, you should avoid CMOS-sensors, they make a lot of noise. The common CCD-sensor USB webcams are the Philips PWC740 and the Logitech Quickcam pro 4000. They use the same driver, and have similar image quality. I have the philips, but if I 'd buy again, I'd go for the Logitech. The focus-lens-mechanics on the logitech is much more stable than on the philips.
I recently saw that logitech announced an affordable motorized tilt+pan webcam, don't know if that one is supported in linux (and if you can use the tilt+pan in linux).
Firewire could be better than USB, framerate x resulotion is really limited, but I don't know if there is any affordable CCD/firewire webcam with linux support.
For motion tracking in darkness, you may try using global infrared lighting, or try attaching infrared LED's to the objects or subjects you want to track. Remove the IR-block filter from the webcam, in both cases.
check http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/
regards, Johannes
vanDongen/Gilcher wrote:
I am looking for a cheap webcam that works well under linux/pd/pdp. It should work well darkish theatre settings. Any suggestions? What to buy, what to avoid?
Gerard