Logitech Quickcam pro 4000 low frame rate?

[Space Cowboy]

I understand the quickcam 4000 pro does up to 30 fps but mine is only doing between 9 and 4 fps. I'm using astrocapture software which gives an option to select the frame rate but each time i select a higher rate the actual capture rate is much lower. Last night visability was poor so i needed a high frame rate but 4fps took ages to get any amount of frames. Last week it was 9fps....why the difference? Admittedly i used two different netbooks. I have the camera settings on manual. Is there any way of changing the fps or is it an automatic feature?

[Space Cowboy]

No other quickcam 4000 pro users out there?

[GazOC]

What are the specs on the notebooks? Dropped frames can come from the laptop no being able to keep up.

If you have the exposure time set longer than the frame rate then you will also not get the number of frames you were expecting.

[tooth_dr]

I'm not sure about the quickcam, but with my toucam I usually set the frame rate to 15 fps, and frequently get 12-13. This is with a reasonably capable pc, 1gb ram, 3.4ghz. I'm also not sure why this happens.

[Space Cowboy]

Both netbooks are new (Samsung N130 and Compaq Mini 110) Atom Intel 270 1.6 ghz with 1 gig of ram. Surely they can handle an old webcam at full throttle? The Samsung was set on maximum performance. I was imaging moon and planets so not long exposure.

[GazOC]

There is still an exposure setting though isn't there? If you have the exposure at (say) 1/5th sec and the framerate at 10 FPS then you won't get the 10 FPS.

Just a stab in the dark....

[Space Cowboy]

I think the exposure setting was set at between 1/50 and 1/100th sec.....sorry to sound dim but why would this affect frame rates?

[tooth_dr]

That setting shouldn't affect frame rates,

[TopHouse]

if the exposure is at 1/5 second, it takes one second to do five frames at that exposure, so therefore you couldn't do 10 frames per second.

[GazOC]

The exposure time is the length of time the shutter is open to take one shot, the framerate can't be any quicker than the amount of shots the camera has taken.

If the exposure time is greater then the framerate then you'll either get decreased framerate (One set up I had a few few years ago (can't remember which) inserted extra frames which were copies of the preceeding one to get to the desired framerate but they wern't unique frames.)

[Space Cowboy]

Ok, so if the exposure time is less than 1/30th the cam should take up to 30 fps so that's not the problem in my case. I've just hooked the cam up to my pc which has a celeron 2.8 ghz cpu and 736 megs of RAM..and it runs at 15 fps compared to 9 and 5 fps on the netbooks (all at 1/100 sec exposure). So i guess its all to do with the computers?

Rather dissapointing that i've purchased a netbook to work with the cam and it's only able to produce such a low frame rate...

[tooth_dr]

Rather dissapointing that i've purchased a netbook to work with the cam and it's only able to produce such a low frame rate...

I bought the missus a netbook for Xmas, and I find it a bit slow at times.

Might be worth buying a 2gb stick of ram and replacing the 1gb stick. That upgrade is only about £40 and easy to do yourself.

[TopHouse]

Agreed, by far the best bang for your buck upgrade for any lappy is boosting mem, unless it's already adequate but as a guide 2 gig is a nice sweet spot for any lappy, really easy to fit and to make sure you buy the right sort just go to the crucial website, tell it the make/model of your lappy and it will tell you what mem you need. Found crucial quite reasonable for memory prices too.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/drammemory.aspx

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks guys that's a very good website.

Not sure whether RAM is an issue though as when i run windows task manager there is over 500 megs of RAM free while running the webcam and capture software, CPU usage is at 60%. When running on the pc there is far less free RAM yet it runs a faster frame rate. I'm wondering if its something to do with the video/graphics capability?

[Space Cowboy]

Problem solved! The problem is with Astrocapture not the cam or netbook! When i tried a different video capture program the frame rate was spot on (15fps @640/480) (30fps @ 320/240).

[tooth_dr]

Problem solved! The problem is with Astrocapture not the cam or netbook! When i tried a different video capture program the frame rate was spot on (15fps @640/480) (30fps @ 320/240).

That is interesting. I've been using Astrocapture too, and only getting 12.8 FPS. Can you advise me what other software you are using, freeware>?

Regards

Adam

[Space Cowboy]

Check out this thread Adam :

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/98474-new-webcam-capture-software.html#post1388214

I've not tried imaging with this program yet but the webcam frame rate is spot on when i connected it.

Astrocapture seems to run ok on a pc but not on my netbooks.

Stuart.

[tooth_dr]

Cheers Stuart, got it downloaded, cloudy here but at least it is working well.