webcam vs digicam

[greencat]

What would be the advantages of using a phillips toucam vs a digicam that does videos?

I have a canon powershot a80 that does video but am not sure if it would match the quality of a toucam.

Any advice welcome please.

[daz]

GC

The ToUcam has a CCD sensor in it, whereas many digicams use a CMOS sensor - less sensitive in dark or low light conditions. Not sure of the specs of your cam, but if it uses a CCD chip, then the other things are chip size and a threaded lens. Obviously, the bigger the chip, the more it can gather. The lens on the ToU unscrews so you can add EP adaptors to boost the magnification on the object. If the digicam does not have this, then you can only do afocal capture.

Also, the ToU is generally modded to allow it to do long exposure, single shots as well.

HTH

[lunator]

Greencat

All I can say is my A607 can take video but the results are less then satisfactory.

Webcam are so cheap now that it would be worth investing in one.

Do you have a PC to run the webcam?

Rgds

Ian

[daz]

Good point Ian!!

You'll need a laptop to do webcam imaging - nothing fancy needed, just use it to capture the files and process on the PC.

[greencat]

Thanks for the advice.

Yes I have a laptop.

The Powershot A80 is a 4mp camera with a ccd with full maual controls (iso, shutter, apeture ect). It does video at 30fps. When you say threaded lens, do you mean removeable?, I have a lens adapter for 52mm filters.

The canon sofware features remote capture so I can change exposure settings ect on laptop.

I'm also waiting delivery of an Olympus E500 DSLR twin lens kit from Amazon, but not due till early Jan (any one used one for astro?)

Might just give it a go and see what I get while I wait. Then may try and get a Toucam.

Any more hints?

[daz]

I should you can get an adapter to marry the lens up to the scope in that case - James or Steve will be able to advise more on this.

As for the video, if everything is controllable, I see no reason why you should not be able to capture then. It will be a question of playing with the settings, but will be interesting to see the outcome!

[Ant]

Russ took some nice images using a digicam 2 years ago. Hopefully he'll be along and chip in.

I don't think the end result will be as good as the ToUcam, but it should give some nice results.

Ant