Webcam to stream - static and on the road - what kit to buy?

[hazelmaryjackson]

I have recently reorganised my home network and freed up a laptop (running Vista) which I want to set up as a fixed weather cam, mounted (inside) my bedroom window. I have done a trial run with a small logitech camera (C310HD) via ustream. The feed works fine but the camera is c--p for this because I am focussing on the sky not a face next to the camera. I wondered about the logitech C910HD. Would this be any better? The webcam will be static when in use. From what I can make out it seems to come down to fps and the logitech 910 claims 45fps. (We have a broadband cable modem always on and there is no problem with capacity or cost).

Separately I wondered about taking the laptop on the road from time to time storm chasing. We have a dongle (with 3) on a contract with 5GB month. Here is where I start to struggle with the technology. How much of the dongle contract's 5gb capacity would I use if I was streaming on line from out on the road?.

At this stage I am not planning on recording with the webcam - will use my digital camera for anything really interesting - but streaming while driving along. I want to start small and get comfortable with the technology first. Could I use the same web camera for fixed streaming in the home and out on the road?. If so would the C910 (or just out C915) do the job.

(As an aside I can buy the Logitech webcam 9000 hd pro very cheaply on Amazon at present. Is this a viable alternative to the C910 and 915 models?) All suggestions and advice appreciated.

 

[Mike Moore]

I've had good luck with both the Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000 720p HD Webcam ($30) and the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema 720p HD Webcam ($50) You need to turn off the auto focus and set them manually to focus to infinity, but they do pretty well auto adjusting to lighting conditions.

Once you broadcast over the web the camera quality becomes less of an issue. Over most web streaming services you really can't tell a difference between the HD-5000 and an actual HD camcorder feed.

 

[hazelmaryjackson]

Thanks for this - very useful. It turns out none of the Logitech webcam range have the capability to focus at infinity. If you turn off auto focus, the furthest away you can focus is 6-10 feet (depending on who you believe). I found a number of frustrated logitech web cam owners out there in cyberspace who were unable to set up a logitech webcamera to look at the view from their house for this reason. Seems to be some restruction built into the firmware. Will investigate the MS range.

 

[Brad Emel]

+ 1 for the Microsoft webcams. Many chasers use these, and I've had great results.

 

[TJ Whitt]

Another vote for the Microsoft Livecam Cinema or Studio webcams. I have 4 720p Cinema cams and one 1080p Studio cam. Awesome little webcams.

 

[hazelmaryjackson]

Have purchased a Microsoft webcam. It claims to be able to deliver 1080 but on closer inspection of the box its default mode is 720. Advantage over Logitech is that it can focus on infinity where even the Logito 910 model is restricted to a maximum range of 10 feet. However weather has been overcast since I bought it so no field test so far. Will report back further findings when there is some weather to stream.

 

[TJ Whitt]

They default to 720p but you can do 1080p with 3rd party software such as Wirecast.