Seeking webcam with superb low light performance

June 30, 2012 5:44 PM

I'm looking for a USB webcam with really good low light performance and full manual controls (exposure, focus, etc). A digital camera or camcorder that can emulate a webcam would work too. Bonus if it's known to work well with software like Processing, OpenFrameworks, and/or Jitter.
posted by moonmilk to computers & internet (3 answers total)

The logitech 920 is surprisingly nice.

Fighting low light will always be a challenge. As will all the low light related issues you will see ina club. I am extrapolating from your software selection. But still, until you jump to the big guns, a 1080p Logitech webcam solves a lot of issues.

(I respond cuz I see zero responses.)

Consider lighting the frame you need with white LEDs or hitting a monitor with 100% white when you grab the frame. This works well. ( I could tell you more, but then...)
posted by lothar at 10:52 PM on June 30, 2012

Thanks! I'm gonna evaluate the Logitech 920 and the Microsoft Lifecam Studio, and I hope at least one of those will do the job.
posted by moonmilk at 5:24 AM on July 2, 2012

Update: the Microsoft Lifecam Studio did the job just fine - it had no problem seeing smoke illuminated by a flashlight in a dark room, with modest sensor noise that I was able to filter out. Worked great with Max/MSP/Jitter. It wasn't clear whether it was supported under OSX, but it worked as soon as I plugged it into a machine running OSX Lion.
posted by moonmilk at 6:47 AM on October 4, 2012