Dear Lazy Web: for some reason these days several people are asking me the same question – What Webcam is the cheapest and best to use in Ubuntu ? Of course, it HAS to work with Cheese and video in Skype.
I’d love to know if anyone has suggestions from FutureShop.ca or BestBuy.com or NewEgg.com, in that order 🙂
The Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX seemed like a good candidate but it’s out of stock.
Perhaps what we need is some mashup of this, this and this.
You should tag this post with « hoosgot« , that might give you some more help. I’m interested in the answer to this myself.
It would be great to see some webcams with ‘Works on Ubuntu’ on the packaging or even just an official list on the Ubuntu site. There has got to be plenty of demand when things like Skype video are available. I want one myself for this purpose.
Webcams seem to be a product that has not got as cheap as it should. That Logitech is retailing for $80, but is only VGA. You can probably buy a multi-megapixel camera for that. VGA sensors can’t be that expensive.
I have Labtec Webcam Pro and it works with Skype2 and Cheese under Ubuntu 7.10. Check out this website for best working cameras:
http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html
Notice last column indicating quality by asterisks. There’s another website particulary dedicated for Logitech webcams:
http://www.quickcamteam.net/hcl/linux/
I hope it will helps You:)
I’m looking to buy a Hercules Dualpix Exchange. Has the features of the A-brands and is supposed to work with the UVC driver.
Hard to find though, and could be inpossible in the US as Hercules is a brand of Gullemot which is French.
Target has GE Easycams (blue and white) for $20. They work just fine with Ubuntu (as of Breezy anyway).
Obviously if you’re not in the US, this wont work out too well; but for anyone in the US looking, they’re cheap and usable.
Genius GE 111
Hell of cheap.. works out of the box.
I just purchased a Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX and was able to get both the video and sound to work after installing ekiga. I am pleased with the purchase and the ubuntu hardware support!
Trying to find out which cheap cameras work on Linux is really a pain. After 2-3 days of googling and posting on forums I bought a Logitech QuickCam Express Plus which works fine but has a disappointing (for me, I didn’t have any experience with webcams) CIF resolution and some programs confuse rgb with bgr, resulting in a bluish image. What I notice, though, is that the compatibility with Linux is better as the price/quality goes up.
I have a Quickcam Pro 4000 which works perfectlyu out of the box. They should be quite cheap by now 🙂
I’d recommend perhaps Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000. Seriously, don’t get scared of the word « Microsoft » in it. They wanted to make a high-definition webcam series and seemingly bought a ready design. The image quality is superb (not « full » HD but really really good) and they do work well under Linux. They are a bit on expensive side but if you look at the price/quality ratio it is one of the *best* pieces you can buy.
I just read about gOS 2.0 being released soon. One of the things mentioned in the article is that webcam manufacturer Ezonics partnered with gOS to release a webcam compatible with gOS, and will be releasing many more Linux-friendly devices in 2008. It’s not released yet, but something to keep your eye out for.
http://pcburn.com/article.php?sid=2491
Any USB Video Class webcam should work. I see that you’ve already linked to the list of devices on the Linux UVC driver site, http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/#devices
There are other UVC-compliant webcams. Just look for something « driver free ». I got a Genius Eye 320.