Looking for a reliable webcam that can also be configured as a still camera (x frames per second/minute etc) with either an inbuilt microphone or recommendation for a decent external microphone.

obviously for general purpose home made porn and alike, but also for home security.
motion detection would be invaluable but I'm not expecting it in any kind of home-office type webcam.

further to the motion detection, I'm in the process of writing an application to determine changes in the output images (using a series of stills taken on my nokia).
I've learnt my lesson from previous projects I've taken on that this has probably already been done by someone reading these forums and that I can save myself time by asking - any information would be greatly welcomed.

I've been googling and haven't found a great deal, except that people are often disappointed with the video quality and or max resolution.
I could care less about recording video, I'm more interested in resolution of stills.

Just curious as to why the need for "home security"? You realize that your only going to get the "security" on the room the web cam is set up in. Do you have people accessing your pc while your not there?

he lives in apartment in refern in sydney :p, why do you think he wants security

I intend to have it mms me pictures if anything changes (ie, motion detection based upon image differentiation)

or at least sms me saying somethings wrong, and save the pics to a remote site

If you just want pictures saved just head on down to Officeworks (unsure if they have them in NSW) and pick yourself up a CCTV set up, bound to be alot better quality. But I doubt it can be set up in a way to notify you if there is any movement, that would be where a monitored alarm system would come in handy. I fail to see what good a web cam set up to be used for security if the buggers end up stealling your computer.

just download a zoneminder livecd and save yourself a bunch of hassle.

Dunno bout still shots, but the Playstation 2 Eye Toy is VERY clear for webcam and has great in-built microphone that you could be a meter away from and still be heard clearly without yelling.

last edited by Protius at 13:29:02 22/Jan/06

my logitech quickcam web had that feature in the application I got with it. I think in later versions everything was all f***ed up and they removed a whole heap of stuff/changed stuff so I stopped using it.

Anyway, you could set up motion detection on it and it'd record a little video when it detected motion. I don't know if you were able to set up a remote site type thing for the motion detector files but if you can write your own programs, shouldn't be too hard to say, set a time for recording to like 30 seconds, have a program watch a particular directory & when it sees a file has been created, 35 seconds later ftp it to a remote site.

It also has a built in mic that's pretty damn sensitive.

you could be a meter away from and still be heard clearly without yelling.

mine picks up the tv on the other side of the house, about 4m away.

last edited by whoop at 13:40:11 22/Jan/06