Slow response for USB Webcam

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Slow response for USB Webcam

Hello - I have a USB 2.0 Webcam attached to my Intel Mac Pro. It's a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000.

When I try to "record new movie", and the recording window comes up, I find that the video, while very crisp and clear, has about a 2 second delay and an apparently slow framerate as all motion is very smeared. This comes thru in both the recording window and in the recording itself.

If I hook my firewire camcorder up and do the same thing, I get nice smooth video with no delays.

Is there some setting I need to use to have the webcam work properly? Is this a USB vs Firewire thing? If so, does anyone make a firewire webcam?

Thanks - Craig

Mac Pro (Intel) 2 dual core, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Oct 11, 2007 9:25 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 12, 2007 3:14 AM in response to csk

Im not familiar with the Logitech cameras, but have had good results with Labtec pro USB cams.
Does the Logitech cam come with mac os drivers or are you using some third-party driver?
I would recommend you to try the Macam drivers http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

And then there is The Unibrain Fire-I firewire cam, but I have no experience with them yet....
http://www.unibrain.com/Products/VisionImg/FireiDC.htm

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Answer 2

csk Author

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Oct 12, 2007 6:06 AM in response to arvastsson

Thanks for the response - it did not come with any Mac drivers, I just plugged it in and it worked. ID's itself as just a generic USB camera, nothing specific to logitech, and that may be part of the issue. I will look at the Macam drivers as you suggested...

Thanks - Craig

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Answer 3

csk Author

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Oct 12, 2007 6:11 AM in response to arvastsson

Just checked out the Macam site and it says that the QuickCam Pro 9000 doesn't yet work with Macam, but it does say that it is UVC compliant which is probably why it works for me .... just not optimally.

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Answer 4

Oct 12, 2007 1:20 PM in response to csk

Use the internal iSight cam.

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Answer 5

csk Author

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Oct 12, 2007 3:00 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

To be clear - I am not on an iMac or MacBook; I have a Mac Pro with an Apple Cinema Display that doesn't have a built in iSight camera. Hence the USB cam.

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