How to set up your very own WEBCAM!

Webcams have become cheaper and easier to use over the years. There has also been some confusion over the naming conventions. Originally, a WEBcam was a camera that was accessible via a webpage. Now virtually all small consumer grade cameras specifically designed to be used with the computer are called webcams. Despite the naming convention, if you can get the camera working on the computer, you can use it as a webcam.

Note that this document does not cover how to use the camera with netmeeting, various instant messenger programs, or movie encoding programs. While any camera used as a webcam could be used with any of those applications, their use is beyond the scope of this document.

First you will need to purchase a camera, if you don't have one already. They are available in every price range, and you basically get what you pay for. Almost all cameras sold for use on the computer now have USB connections. Older ones used the parallel port. Another option is to purchase a capture card WINTV or the like and use a camcorder, VCR, or some other video source via RCA or SVIDEO cables. From the application point of view, these are all the same. If you want to go cheap, you can purchase a cam for less than $20 at most any electronics or computer store. Fry's, CompUSA, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. Be advised that most of the small cams are designed to look good in well lighted conditions, but degrade rapidly when the light is dim.

If you're interested in a better quality option and money isn't as much of an issue, you might consider purchasing a capture card and using a digital camera or camcorder as your video source. Some camcorders already come with a USB connection as well, and while it would be quite expensive to use solely as a webcam, if you're planning to purchase a camcorder anyway, that might be a feature you'll be interested in. However, even an inexpensive or used camcorder will provide a better video image than most any "webcam" you'll purchase off the shelves at the computer stores, but you'll probably be looking at the low $100 range even if you get good deals on the hardware.

Once you've selected your camera of choice, you'll need to install it. How easy or complicated this might be depends on the cam itself. However, it's likely not a difficult task if you read the directions. Once the drivers for the cam are installed, the next step is to get a webcam program.

Since naming conventions might vary, in this document a webcam program is an application program that will take an image from a camera and provide a jpeg (or other image type) file that can be made available to web viewers. The typical webcam program will be able to either save a file locally at a regular interval, use FTP to upload the file to a website at a regular interval, or come with a built in webserver that will serve up the jpeg file. Many webcam programs will have all these features. For software under, you have many options available. The most popular one these days seems to be WebcamXP which has cam, desktop, and audio support built in. Webcam32, Webcam2000, and Dorgem are some other options.