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Philips SPC900NC Less than £20.00

Stevie P

By Stevie P
in Getting Started With Imaging

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Stargazer33

Stargazer33

Posted
Posted

Following up on this I found one of these on the bay and looked at the Philips website for the specs. They look pretty good!

Mechanics

• Sensor: 2.0 MP CMOS

• Lens view angle: 70 degrees

• Lens maximum aperture: F:2.0

• White balance: 2600 - 7600 k

• Lens construction: 5 elements

• Autofocus

• Minimum illuminance: < 2 lux

• Data format: YUY2, MJPEG

• Colour depth: 16 bit

Resolution

• Video resolution: 2.0 MP

• Photo resolution: 2.0 MP

• Interpolated photo resolution: 8.0 MP

• Maximum frame rate: 90 fps

Connectivity

• Cable length: 80 centimetre

• Interfacing: USB 2.0

• Power: Supplied via USB cable

• USB video class: UVC

The USB 2.0 is the big plus over the SPC900NC which I believe is a USB 1.0 which limits the frame rate to 10 fps if you don't want to get into compression. With the USB 2.0 of this unit it should allow for higher frame rates without running into compression. The < 2 lux looks good too. I believe the 900NC is < 1 lux but most other webcams seem to be < 5 lux.

It's more expensive than you could pick up the 900NC for before the prices went silly, but with people paying £50 up for 900NCs now £25.00 seems cheap!

Can't see if it would take the standard adaptor though?

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JamesF

JamesF

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Because it's auto-focus it may well not have a standard board lens mount. That doesn't of course mean it can't be modified, but it may well mean the level of butchery that's involved in modding something like the Lifecam Cinema which is rather more brutal than what's required for the SPC900/Xbox cameras.

James

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Stargazer33

Stargazer33

Posted
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Because it's auto-focus it may well not have a standard board lens mount. That doesn't of course mean it can't be modified, but it may well mean the level of butchery that's involved in modding something like the Lifecam Cinema which is rather more brutal than what's required for the SPC900/Xbox cameras.

James

I have found one of these on the bay for around £12.00, so with those specs and at that price it might be worth a look see. I paid £7.00 for the Asda HD webcam which wasn't as good as I was hoping so for another £5.00 I might have a try. If I manage to mod it I will post some pics and a review (not that I know that much!)

Theres a SPC900 on ABS for £48, big saving on the ebay offerings.

They maybe pricey but supply and demand and all that, as James says they are the best choice in the sub 100 bracket

It's just a shame that Philips seems to have abandoned this type of easily modified webcam. If they had updated the USB connectivity and just improved the resolution of the 900NC to HD it could have been a camera to give some of the higher spec astrocams a run for their money.

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tingting44

tingting44

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is there no way we can change the lead on the spc900? and just put a usb2 lead on it? or does it not work like that? (EDIT> mhhh thinking about it i do not even know if my laptop is usb2? lool :D...... however im over the moon with the spc900 i got my best results ever with it last week, and was shocked at how much detail the spc900 can actually get, your not going to get better then this for £30! :)

8454344162_7e45ed8a3b_o.jpg

Capture 06_02_2013 09_11_45 PM_pipp RE-DO R6 BEST YET STACK - PS - LAYER INFO by tingting44, on Flickr

Clear Skies

Martin

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AstroAdam

AstroAdam

Posted
Posted
is there no way we can change the lead on the spc900? and just put a usb2 lead on it? or does it not work like that? however im over the moon with the spc900 i got my best results ever with it last week, and was shocked at how much detail the spc900 can actually get, your not going to get better then this for £30! :)

8454344162_7e45ed8a3b_o.jpg

Capture 06_02_2013 09_11_45 PM_pipp RE-DO R6 BEST YET STACK - PS - LAYER INFO by tingting44, on Flickr

Clear Skies

Martin

Nope. Usb1 and usb2 leads are aurally the same. It's the actual circuitry and controller chips that are different. A USB 1 service will always be a USB 1 device.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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mikehab

mikehab

Posted
Posted

I managed to get a Philips PCVC840K for £28 on eBay a couple of weeks ago.... that has exactly the same CCD sensor as the SPC900 - so to all intent and purpose is exactly the same thing. I can confirm that the image quality from that is far superior to anything I've managed to get from other webcams I've tried (including xbox and various Microsoft webcams which were USB2 and <2 lux sensitivity).

Joined2Regi.jpg

Cheers,

Mike

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
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It's just a shame that Philips seems to have abandoned this type of easily modified webcam. If they had updated the USB connectivity and just improved the resolution of the 900NC to HD it could have been a camera to give some of the higher spec astrocams a run for their money.

They're interested in high volume markets though -- a few thousand or even tens of thousands probably wouldn't even be enough sales to cover the development costs. The consumer market wants simple-to-control HD webcams these days, so that's what they make. It was only sheer chance that these webcams turned out to be so good for planetary imaging in the first place. We have to remember that wasn't what they were made for.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Nope. Usb1 and usb2 leads are aurally the same. It's the actual circuitry and controller chips that are different. A USB 1 service will always be a USB 1 device.

Exactly. You'd need to change the entire USB interface on the PCB and modify the firmware to take advantage of it. All but totally redesign the camera, really.

James

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Stargazer33

Stargazer33

Posted
Posted

They're interested in high volume markets though -- a few thousand or even tens of thousands probably wouldn't even be enough sales to cover the development costs. The consumer market wants simple-to-control HD webcams these days, so that's what they make. It was only sheer chance that these webcams turned out to be so good for planetary imaging in the first place. We have to remember that wasn't what they were made for.

James

True! Everyone is out to make as much money as they can, as quick as they can!

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Andymac79

Andymac79

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is there no way we can change the lead on the spc900? and just put a usb2 lead on it? or does it not work like that? (EDIT> mhhh thinking about it i do not even know if my laptop is usb2? lool :D...... however im over the moon with the spc900 i got my best results ever with it last week, and was shocked at how much detail the spc900 can actually get, your not going to get better then this for £30! :)

8454344162_7e45ed8a3b_o.jpg

Capture 06_02_2013 09_11_45 PM_pipp RE-DO R6 BEST YET STACK - PS - LAYER INFO by tingting44, on Flickr

Clear Skies

Martin

That is superb!
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Stargazer33

Stargazer33

Posted
Posted

That's what happens when you get corporate investors...

James

A bit like the water companies. Get shareholders and pay them huge bonuses each year and then put the customers bills up by way above inflation to pay for repairs/upgrades to their infrastructure because they have no money because they have paid it all to their investors and management!!!! :angry4:

Sorry, bit of a rant and going WAY off topic! :grin:

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  • 2 months later...
smudgeball

smudgeball

Posted
Posted

Posts like this make me wish I'd bought up the supply of 880nc off morgan's computers when they had them tor a tenner !

I'm surprised that Phillips have not put this camera back into production.

Sure there are reasons, but they'd make a killing

Neil

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JamesF

JamesF

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I'm surprised that Phillips have not put this camera back into production.

Sure there are reasons, but they'd make a killing

I really don't believe this is true. If they could make a killing and still choose not to, why would someone else not do it instead? The sensor chips are still available and the camera could be USB2 (or even USB3) this time around -- would probably have to be, in fact, as I bet the original USB chipset is no longer available. Of course, IS do make them, but they charge £350 a pop.

I believe the redesign cost, the re-tooling, setup and manufacturing costs as well as packaging, shipping, marketing and sales costs, as well as a bit of profit, wouldn't allow a similar camera to be sold in the limited numbers that the astronomy marketplace represents at anything like the price they were once sold for (which was probably only possible because they were old stock that someone wanted to get shot of at whatever price they could get for them).

James.

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Pete Presland

Pete Presland

Posted
Posted

Posts like this make me wish I'd bought up the supply of 880nc off morgan's computers when they had them tor a tenner !

I'm surprised that Phillips have not put this camera back into production.

Sure there are reasons, but they'd make a killing

Neil

someone pretty much did buy them all!

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