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2009-12-03T07:01:00.000-08:00

My first digital camera was a black and white QuickCam eyeball. The QuickCam was originally made by Connectix, but eventually the product was sold to Logitech. It has mostly survived the transition unscathed, and some models are still USB Mac compatible. However, the old style serial Mac version is no longer manufactured.

I did a lot of fun stuff with that camera, but after a few pointless CUseeMe conferences and the usual series of pictures of my room, my cat, my face, and the window, what else was there to do with it? I photographed a few relatives just for the novelty effect and recorded brief video clips of a number of people, archived the files somewhere, and finally stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it.

Acquisition of a color QuickCam temporarily revived my interest, but the larger file sizes also meant it was a bit more inconvenient to use.

My latest acquisition (it really belongs to my school) is a Videolabs FlexCam. The FlexCam is one of a large number of variants of small digital cameras which Videolabs manufactures for school and business use. It has composite video (using those fat audio-style jacks) and S-video output.

This camera has much higher resolution than the QuickCam and the ability to focus sharply from only a few centimeters away to infinity. The greater dynamic range of the camera makes it more versatile than the entry-level QuickCams - but it is of course more expensive.

Since it does not connect directly to a standard Mac, I didn't use it until I was given a 300 MHz Beige G3 tower with a video input-output card installed for my classroom. The FlexCam, which resembles a small cylindrical camera mounted on a flexible tube similar to those on old-fashioned flexible desk lamps, connects through the S-video or composite connections.

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