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Webcam - Is it good for taking a picture of a lecture blackboard?
If yes which webcam would you recommend?

jhonyl wrote:Webcam - Is it good for taking a picture of a lecture blackboard?
If yes which webcam would you recommend?

At what distance would you be taking these pictures?
To start off, I'd suggest something that has the ability to at least stream/display images at resolution 1024 x 768 (XGA).

In general, webcams tend to be poor when it comes to capturing images when the room is not bright, a blackboard may shine and white chalk (if we are talking about old-school chalk-writing-blackboards) could be hard to differentiate. Of course it also matters how big the blackboard and the writing is :)

You could always go to a local computer store and try them out.

I once took videos of such blackbords with a Sony video camera. It was ok, I zoomed in at the board and swooped it slowly. About the distance, well it depends on where I sit. It is between 3 meters, and 15 meters. (A meter is a bit more than three feets, so multiply by 3 to get 9 to 45 feet)

jhonyl wrote:I once took videos of such blackbords with a Sony video camera. It was ok, I zoomed in at the board and swooped it slowly. About the distance, well it depends on where I sit. It is between 3 meters, and 15 meters. (A meter is a bit more than three feets, so multiply by 3 to get 9 to 45 feet)

We're using SI units in Estonia too, so no need to convert :)

I myself tend to think VGA (640 x 480) may be a bit too small to be able to read something from 15 meters, and neither do I know how much do XGA webcams cost in your country.
But still I think the best approach would be you going to a few shops and checking the cams yourself.

I use a 2 megapixel Kodak digital camera when I need to take pictures of the chalkboard or overhead. Some professors really like to move fast, to the point where they know the students have no hope of writing things down...