[PD] Pd/GEM and camera for tracking

[Jaime Oliver]

Hi,

I am about to buy one of these FireflyMV's. It's 350$ with shipping to
california.

Has anyone actually tried them?

There is a new version with usb2.0, do any of you think it would be
easier than 1394 to get these working under linux?

best,

J

On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:06 AM, Martin Schied <crinimal at gmx.net> wrote:
> hey all,
>
> Jaime Oliver schrieb:
>> mmh, I don't really know about lengths. I think there is a limit to
>> how long your firewire cable should be. I usually work with analog
>> cameras in linux where cables can be long ad I capture with a pci card.
>>
>> I think a cheap option that I've seen working well with macs is the
>> unibrain fire-i:
>> http://www.unibrain.com/Products/VisionImg/Fire_i_DC.htm
>>
>> you can buy lenses and chain them, not more than 30fps though,
>>
>> J
> lengths between firewire 400 devices is usually 4.5m, but you can daisy
> chain them up to 16 times giving you 72 metres. it's not very
> recommendable to make long chains, as every plug may be a "weak point"
> in your chain. firewire 800 can have longer cables, but i don't know...
>
> Jack schrieb:
>> Thanx for the reply. The models are too big for me. I need a smaller
>> camera (something like a cube) because the installation must be
>> discreet. Have you something else to suggest ?
>> Chris : what do you think about Sony driver ? I can't use a PCI card
>> because i will work with a macmini.
>> ++
>
> as manufacturer of small firewire cameras there's also "point grey". I
> don't know exactly about cost, and didn't try them on my own but they
> often were recommended by people doing tracking, also being said they
> were affordable, especially the "firefly mv" which delivers
> 60fps at 640x480 and even higher frame rates at lower resolutions.
>
> that's what they say about macintosh (seems to work):
> http://www.ptgrey.com/support/kb/index.asp?a=4&q=173
>
> i also made tests with usb webcams (only on linux and windows), some
> with usable results but most of them are crap. to be usable they should
> support "real" usb2.0 for high frame rates at full sensor resolution
> (usually 640x480), without compression and have ccd sensors for better
> quality and light sensitivity. (finding out usb version and other
> technical stuff can be real pain from manufacruerer sites, usually
> you'll have to try them).
> image quality was always worse than cheap video cameras - but as an
> advantage they were not interlaced like usual consumer video cameras.
> cable lengths can be extended by usb hubs or "repeater" cables several
> times, but that's also the "many-connectors - many errors" thing
>
> @Jack: what exactly will your tracking method be based on? natural
> features? colors? markers? with some luck a cheap usb webcam  could be
> good enough and also really small. (yeah, i'm a fan of using cheap
> consumer producs and having trouble with them - be warned)
>
> cheers,
> Martin
>
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-- 
Jaime E Oliver LR

joliverl at ucsd.edu
www.realidadvisual.org/jaimeoliver
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