In the following message http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2004/0142.html Judy May mentioned the Astrovid StellaCam II, which is a mid to high-end amateur camera priced at $795: http://www.astrovid.com/stellacam_ii.htm Moreover, currently it appears to be intended for photographing celestial objects (i.e., it does frame integration), rather than for video; the "User's Guide" for "PC Control for Stellacam II" http://www.astrovid.com/stellacam%20II%20pc%20control/STELLACAMII.pdf indicates shutter speeds of 1/120 to 1/2000 as being "for future use." The Philips line of ToUcams seems to be popular among SeeSat-L, and similarly interested folks, and I was considering getting the relatively new "ToUcam Pro 840k" http://www.scopetronix.com/webcam.htm http://www.astrovid.com/toucam_pro_pcvc_740k_webcam.htm http://www.astrovid.com/toucam%20pro/pcvc840k.pdf http://www.bro.lsu.edu/cgi-bin/wwwboard/messages/758.html David Molyneaux states below http://homepage.ntlworld.com/molyned/web-cameras.htm "I've added a top rating for the Toucam Pro II now that recent results find it as good as the Toucam Pro." He indicates that this camera uses the Sony ICX098BQ CCD. http://www.eaas.co.uk/club_members/astrophotography_resources.html gives this caveat, however (which is confirmed by the PDF above): "The TouCam Pro 840K is the latest Philips incarnation of the original 740K. It has exactly the same lens thread and electronics, only the casing is different. Do not be fooled by the greater frame rate as this is still a USB 1.1 webcam and frames are limited by USB bandwidth to 5fps 640x480 uncompressed." I have a 3 year-old ADS "Pyro" webcam that uses the FireWire interface, and can capture uncompressed VGA color video at 15 fps. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an updated driver for it, that would allow me to control shutter speed. I've decided to try the Fire-i camera, which also apparently uses the Sony ICX098BQ CCD: http://www.unibrain.com/1394_products/fire-i_dig_cam/digital_camera_pc.htm http://www.unibrain.com/1394_products/fire-i_software/fire-i_software.htm http://www.unibrain.com/support/tech_specs/fire-i_camera/tech_specs.htm http://www.unibrain.com/download/pdfs/brochures/fire-i_dc_pc_mac.pdf http://www.unibrain.com/download/pdfs/ICX098BQ.pdf http://www.unibrain.com/home http://www.1394store.com/eshop/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=5 This particular model comes with a 4.65mm lens, giving a horizontal view angle 42° and a vertical view angle 32°. The camera is also available as a "Fire-i Board Camera Color" http://www.1394store.com/eshop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=55&pf%5Fid=2040 with a choice of 2.1, 4.5, 4.65, and 12mm lenses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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