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How much ? ... has the world gone mad ?

knobby

By knobby
in Discussions - Cameras

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
Posted

Us there no other webcam to equal or beat it? What makes it so much better than anything else at the price point?

There are a few other webcams from the same era that are pretty much the same camera, but they're even more rare these days. Until you get close to three figures though, no, I don't think anything else does come that close unless perhaps you have heaps (and I really mean heaps) of aperture. Even some of the low-end dedicated astro cameras don't perform as well from what I've read.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
Posted

Philips should put them back into production, there are hordes of people wanting to grab one, including me!

How many is a "horde"? Do you think they'd sell 10,000? 50,000? 100,000? How much would it cost to set up a new production run, market, distribute and sell them? £1m? £5m? £10m? I imagine they might need to redesign the electronics to support USB2 as well, as it's entirely possible the original USB1 interface is no longer available and that could mean changes to the firmware as well. That's all additional cost.

To do all that and make a profit could easily mean that the price would be in the hundreds of pounds, at which point of course they'd achieve fewer sales and it all starts to look an even less viable proposition.

James

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Amra

Amra

Posted
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Ouch, shot me down! Just wanting a cheap upgrade from the xbox webcam, it's a shame there hasn't been a good alternative in the same price range as when the SPC900 was originally in production. :(

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billhinge

billhinge

Posted
Posted

Changing the subject slightly, my camera has various video modes from 1920x1280 down to 640x480 and below and can record 25p and 30p at up to 144Mb/s using modified firmware and I have a 65Gb card for recording.

I've never really understood how would I benefit from a webcam (I have 3.6u pixels) , am I missing something or are webcams just a cost effective compromise that can be computer controlled?

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
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Changing the subject slightly, my camera has various video modes from 1920x1280 down to 640x480 and below and can record 25p and 30p at up to 144Mb/s using modified firmware and I have a 65Gb card for recording.

I've never really understood how would I benefit from a webcam (I have 3.6u pixels) , am I missing something or are webcams just a cost effective compromise that can be computer controlled?

Smaller pixels aren't always an advantage as they can mean reduced sensitivity and planetary imaging isn't exactly the purpose for which the cameras are designed. Give it a go though. Video on DSLR cameras seems to be getting better all the time and you may be able to get results that are ok. The kinds of images that, for example, Darryl is posting however really need a very sensitive camera that can do much higher frame rates and I think that's probably beyond what DSLR manufacturers will see as worthwhile development.

James

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Gina

Gina

Posted
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I don't know how much the SPC900 was when it was originally in production. I think the only reason Morgan's were knocking it out at £5 was because it was old stock they wanted to get rid of.

James

Precisely! That's what Morgans do. You can get great bargains in slightly out of date equipment.
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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

Posted
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I don't know how much the SPC900 was when it was originally in production ....

The SPC900NC originally sold for between £40 and £60.

From my understanding the stock sold by Morgan's was of a specially made variant of the SPC 900 called the SPC 800 that was produced specially for a now-defunct Dutch interactive web-based TV service. When they first put them on sale, Morgan's had no idea there was a market for these in the astronomy community. This is reflected in the fact that they ended up selling them for nearly £25 each.

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Photosbykev

Photosbykev

Posted
Posted

I don't know how much the SPC900 was when it was originally in production. I think the only reason Morgan's were knocking it out at £5 was because it was old stock they wanted to get rid of.

James

I bought 6 of them from Morgans @ £5 each :) and they can be useful, I use one on the end of my polar scope to stop me getting wet knees, but they certainly aren't worth the prices knocking around at the moment. For not much more you can get a proper CCD camera, still in production and USB2, for planetary work.
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JamesF

JamesF

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Kev

"I use one on the end of my polar scope to stop me getting wet knees"

What a brilliant idea! Thanks for that.

Do put it at the bottom end, though. It doesn't work anywhere near as well if you put it in the top :D

James

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