Are there any webcams that do at least *60fps* at 1024x768?
September 29, 2013 3:35 PM   Subscribe

I'm building an interactive art piece that processes video from a webcam using Processing. The piece would look much more fluid if I could get 60fps at a minimum resolution of 1024x768 from the webcam. I'd love to spend $100±.
posted by gregr to Technology (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Fastest I currently know of is still the Playstation Eye at 640x480 60FPS.

You'll have to move to machine vision cameras to get those specs. The cheapest Point Grey cameras are close to what you are looking for (not a huge fan of their stuff, but...). There may be others, or there may be used, older cameras available on the cheap.
posted by fake at 3:40 PM on September 29, 2013


Does it have to be a webcam? Some DSLRS, cameras, etc. can be used in the same capacity.
posted by thylacine at 4:24 PM on September 29, 2013


The Raspberry Pi camera does 720p at 60fps-- you'd need to get a Raspberry Pi to hook it into, but that would still be under $100 all in-- if you're lucky, perhaps you could even run processing directly on the Pi and let it handle your entire project.
posted by Static Vagabond at 4:27 PM on September 29, 2013


Processing — even with the new java — is likely a bit painful still on the Raspberry Pi. openFrameworks on the Raspberry Pi is a thing of wonder, though.
posted by scruss at 4:37 PM on September 29, 2013


Response by poster: fake: I saw that Playstation Eye, but I really need more resolution. The Point Grey cameras look out of my price range, but they look awesome.

thylacine: I'm open to using DSLRs or other cameras, but I don't have any idea how the interface to Processing would work.

Static Vagabond & scruss: I'm much more used to Processing on Windows & Mac; trying to learn a new platform seems complicated. Is there some way I might be able to interface the Rasberry Pi camera to a non Rasberry Pi computer? At a glance it doesn't look like that would be possible?
posted by gregr at 5:48 PM on September 29, 2013


A quick google search popped up this(make sure to get the usb3 revision as well, the older identically named usb2 version only does 640x480) as well which looks like it's trying to be a fake kinect...

I really really doubt you'll find anything cheaper than that out there. There were a few on sites like this but i'd be super afraid of it showing up and doing 60fps, but not at full resolution. Or some other dumb limitation/gotcha like that. Several google results also mentioned that while a lot of camera hardware can handle 60fps, it wasn't implemented in the drivers for whatever reason.

I would be amazed if any remote-linked dedicated point and shoot/DSLR type camera was outputting over 30fps via USB. It often even looks to be a bit less, and definitely less than 10x7.

If you look around there's a lot of people asking about this in various places and not getting any real answers. It seems like some HD digital camcorders can output 60fps full res over firewire? everything seems really murky except for that asus camera which seems like it just came out.
posted by emptythought at 6:16 PM on September 29, 2013


The Logitech HD Pro C920 does 1080p, will that work?
posted by disillusioned at 1:06 AM on September 30, 2013


Oh hai, you're asking also about framerate... hmm.... Not sure what its framerate is...
posted by disillusioned at 1:07 AM on September 30, 2013


Response by poster: emptythought: I spent a few hours looking around online, and came to the same conclusion -- that lots of people are curious, but there isn't a whole lot of real information.

disillusioned: Logitech doesn't provide a super detailed breakdown of all resolutions & frame rates, but it looks liek the HD Pro C920 probably doesn't do 60fps.
posted by gregr at 6:58 AM on September 30, 2013


« Older Waterproof Kitchen Cabinetry?   |   Which Twitter Feeds will spoil Breaking Bad in... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.