Video and Camera Tips
by Bill Sanders

In order to provide an overview of some Webcams used with Flash Communication Server as well as some insights on what seems to work, I’ve compiled my collection of Webcams and DVs and have put this little article together. It serves as a small review and some tips welcoming all insights, comments, and other communications to further our understanding of Flash Communication Server. First, the following set of cameras have made their way into my possession and will be used in the discussion:

USB
1. Creative Labs PD 1001
2. Logitech Cordless
3. QuickCam Pro 4000 Logitech
4. Micro Technologies

IEEE 1394/FireWire
1. Pyro 1394 Web Cam (ADS Technology) (discontinued)
2. Orange Micro iBot
3. iSight by Apple

DV
1. Canon Ultura
2. Canon Optura
3. Canon GL2

Of the USB cameras, the QuickCam Pro 4000 is hard to beat, primarily because it also has a built-in microphone along with good quality video. However, price and video-wise, I like the Creative very much, and since I use a headset/boom mic combo, the built-in microphone is not really necessary.
In low light, the Creative beats everything. The Micro is so bad that I never use it. It's cheap (about $15 at Provantage.com) and performs like a cheap USB cam even though the Creative Webcam is only $30 it performs video-wise up to par with the far more expensive QuickCam Pro 4000. For lowest bandwidth communication with decent video quality, I think that the lower end USBs are the way to go. The key is the amount of bandwidth they consume, and with more than two people in a videoconference, bandwidth gets gobbled up pretty quickly.

More recently the Philips USB ToUcam Pro Webcam has become available and while I’ve never used it, I’ve seen it from the other end. It is extremely impressive, and it’s recently become available to US consumers through Amazon.com for $68.
[Editor's note: the Toucam seems to have been discontinued on Amazon.com but is still available on Amazon.co.uk].
It’s rated at 60 fps, but for a communication app, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that speed. I’m trying to settle at 24 fps, which is relatively high but it is in line with video standards.

Of the 1394/FireWire cameras, it's a toss-up between the Pyro and the iBot. Unfortunately, ADS Technology quit making Webcams (but you cans till find them at places like Provantage.com and Amazon.com), but they had super ones that look great and work well with PCs and Flash Communication Server. The Orange Micro iBot never worked right with my Mac, but it's fantastic on my Win XP.
The picture quality of both of these cameras is superior to anything found in the USB cams, but they all use more bandwidth. Also, they were not as good in low light. The iSight camera is over-rated IMHO. Unlike the Pyro or iBot, it does not have an adjustable lens, and so focus, while simpler, the iSight may not be everything you'd want.

If you have higher FPS settings with the iSight, it's spectacular, but so too are the other 1394 cameras and they cost a lot less. The iSight has a built-in Mic as well, and if you don't like boom mics, that's a plus because the other two have no built-in mics. Others on this list have had outstanding results using the iSight camera on their Win PCs, and with good light and the right settings, it is a good camera.
However, it's not without its drawbacks, primarily lack of manual focus control. (A recent review of the ADS Pyro 1394 on Amazon.com is about as bad as they get, but I can honestly say that I had a very difference experience with the camera being reviewed. This Webcam has a high-quality Sony CCD and delivers over FCS.)

I've used DVs both with a Dazzle card on the PC and with my Mac. With lots of light, they have the highest quality picture compared with the Webcams, but they use up so much bandwidth that they will freeze up a lot. I find them most useful for recording files, such as MOV, AVI or WMV files and then converting these files to FLV and streaming them with Flash Communication Server. However, for use with video chat, I wouldn't recommend them at all unless you only have 1-1 chats with very high bandwidth.

For me, I've grown accustomed to the quality of the IEEE 1394/Firewire cams, and because most of my online chats involve 2 or 3 people and I have pretty good bandwidth, they work great. Also, by jacking up the Flash Communication Server and quality parameters I can use them for higher quality FLV recordings to be played back either using Flash Communication Server or progressive download. Also, I prefer the boom-mic/headset solution to keep out ambient racket and sound feedback, and so the camera mics are not a relevant issue for me. (For operations requiring no headset and a good mic, I use a Telex microphone.)

I think the most important two things you can do to improve your camera's performance is to increase the amount of light on the subject and, of course, high bandwidth along with making sure you set the Server-side bandwidth settings in your code.

Addition 12th November 11/2004
While the iSight camera by Apple does not have manual focus, it does have auto focus from 50mm (2 inches) to infinity. Saying that the iSight is over-rated (all things, including the price, considered) is not saying that it's a bad camera. I use mine all the time. However, in looking at the ad at www.apple.com, they show a foggy iBot camera picture with some goober in bad light and out of focus compared to an attractive blonde in good light and imply that their camera is better than the iBot -- as Chris Rock would say, "That ain't right!" That may be a useless comparison because the iBot IEEE 1394 has been discontinued and they now sell one similar except with a USB 2.0 connection. (However, you can pick up an iBot Firewire/IEEE 1394 on eBay for about $25 +- compare that to the iSight prices. Even on eBay, they're over $100 and they sell new for $150.)

Don't overlook the ADS Pyro IEEE1394 camera even though it's been discontinued. You can Google it up and find the camera and IEEE 1394 port card for very good prices right now.

Bill Sanders - last updated 11/2004