Please Help me find a camera!

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 14:35:39 -0000, "GrahamH" wrote:


I compared a Toucam Pro 740k with Creative 4000 Pro in low light. The Toucam
was significantly more sensitive and better SNR. No quantitative data but
the difference was easy to see.

I'm not familiar with the Creative 4000 Pro. Do you mean the Logitech Quickcam
4000 Pro? If so, then you did something wrong. The 740K and the QC4000 use the
same sensor and the same chipset. The hardware gains are set slightly
differently, but that can be compensated for programmatically. For good results
you don't want to use either near maximum gain anyway.

I've tried both side-by-side for astronomical imaging. There is absolutely no
difference in performance.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 14:35:39 -0000, "GrahamH"
wrote:


I compared a Toucam Pro 740k with Creative 4000 Pro in low light. The
Toucam
was significantly more sensitive and better SNR. No quantitative data but
the difference was easy to see.

I'm not familiar with the Creative 4000 Pro. Do you mean the Logitech
Quickcam
4000 Pro? If so, then you did something wrong. The 740K and the QC4000 use
the
same sensor and the same chipset. The hardware gains are set slightly
differently, but that can be compensated for programmatically. For good
results
you don't want to use either near maximum gain anyway.

I've tried both side-by-side for astronomical imaging. There is absolutely
no
difference in performance.


Ah, engage brain before posting eh? Yes I meant Logitech 4000 Pro. My "test"
was not on a telescope, just the standard cameras viewing a night scene. All
settings on auto so the gains would have been higher than you would usually
want. The 740K had more detail with less noise. Maybe it had a longer
exposure capability although IIRC there wasn't a noticeable difference in
frame rate. Your result is more relevant to this group. Are you sure they
use the same chipset?

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:00:10 -0000, "GrahamH" wrote:

Ah, engage brain before posting eh? Yes I meant Logitech 4000 Pro. My "test"
was not on a telescope, just the standard cameras viewing a night scene. All
settings on auto so the gains would have been higher than you would usually
want. The 740K had more detail with less noise. Maybe it had a longer
exposure capability although IIRC there wasn't a noticeable difference in
frame rate. Your result is more relevant to this group. Are you sure they
use the same chipset?

I don't know how often these things change, but I've had both open together on
my bench (in June or July I'd guess), and there was no difference at all. The
circuits looked the same, too, except possibly for some component values (can't
read those of most surface mount parts).

That's when I compared their performance, too. To get the same results, I had to
set the gain slider a little lower on the Toucam, but once I did that I couldn't
distinguish between images.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com