webcams that are good for fedora and openwrt

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca>

|   i'd like to crawl out of my sick bed today and wander down to future
| shop and pick up a webcam to putz around with.  obviously, i want one
| that's well-supported on fedora, but i'd also like one that's
| compatible with installing openwrt on my asus wl500-gp router

I know little about webcams.  Over the years, I've tried a couple and
the results were not very good on Linux.

Canada Computer (which has a Waterloo store, so it is probably within
your crawling range).  Had a one-day special this week on a Microsoft
webcam for notebooks.  $44 then, $70 now :-(

  http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=014190&cid=WC

Two things to note about this camera:
- lots of pixels
- UVC

When I googled for Linux support for this camera, I came across this
helpful article.
  http://www.linuxlove.org/2007/11/12/linux-webcam-microsoft-lifecam-nx-6000-on-ubuntu-and-fedora/
It also lists other UVC webcams.

I'm inferring that UVC is the way to go.  I presume that it isn't
proprietary like so many other camera protocols.  It is slightly
worrisome that the driver isn't yet a standard part of distros.

The OpenWRT page you mentioned also seems to like UVC:

    This gives the best results in terms of CPU/RAM usage versus frame
    rate. Also the UVC compatible cameras like Logitech QC Pro 5000
    are quite cheap (~30 to 40 EUR) and give very impressive, good
    looking results.

When it comes to pixel counts, the specs for some cameras seem to lie.
They count on some kind of software interpolation which the Linux
drivers are unlikely to do and which are really "made up" resolution
in some sense.  The CC description talks about 7.6 megapixel still
photos, with a footnote indicated but missing.  I bet that this is
interpolated.

Sorry I didn't read your message until long after the CC sale.