Question:I have been meaning to get a little webcam or digital camera for a while now
after reading the various quickcam sites that are around. The only problem
is that these little webcams don't have any internal storage, and I don't
have a laptop. The view out of my window is very narrow.
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=438
The above product looks to be the same specification as a quickcam VC, with
true 640x480 mode rather than the botched-software "i'll guess what should
be here" version of the quickcam express of the same price. The still images
look equivalent, or perhaps better, than the quickcam VC's. If I could
convert this for use with astrophotography and take some basic snaps with
it, I could perhaps do a tutorial for people who wish to do the same.
Does anyone think this would work?
Answer:Hi Simon - the same advise gets repeated every 6 weeks or so on this
NG. So as an alternative try a cheap home security camera
[like http://home.freeuk.net/m.gavin/cheapcam.htm]
for plugging direct into a tv - no pc needed. A PC tv capture card
helpful for manipulating pictures.
Problem with tiny digital cameras are their tiny lenses which let
through so little light. The existing lens must be removed [if
possible] and the camera applied to a telescope focal plane but
frankly results will be very frustrating.
Big and expensive digicams have largish lenses so will work for
astrophotography without additional optics like
http://home.freeuk.com/m.gavin/digsky2.htm
