Because making powerful cameras is expensive, so manufacturers have no incentive to over-deliver. Most webcam users require a decent image quality for online meetings or video calls, so high FPS is not a priority or even a selling point.
In the best conditions, most webcams will deliver 30 FPS. Bad conditions usually mean not enough lighting, in which case the camera will balance "gain" and "exposure time" to get a better image. Increasing gain will send more power to the sensor, making it more sensitive, but it will make images more grainy. Increasing exposure time will get more light for each frame, but will cause motion blur, and will lower the frame rate.
Yes, but not many models.
The PS3 Eye, a webcam designed for the Play Station gaming console, it at the top of the list. It is cheap and can go up to 150 fps in 320x240. However, it is no longer in production. The good news is that you can get a PS3 Eye very cheap on auction sites (Ebay or Amazon) or on classified ads.
Because the PS3 Eye was made for the gaming console, and not for the PC, Sony never made drivers for the PC. Code Laboratories is a company that did make some drivers that work very well, the drivers can be downloaded from their site. The download costs a few dollars, but it is easy to install and safe. (Zone Trigger is not affiliated with Sony or Code Laboratories)
In Webcam Zone Trigger, once the PS3 Eye is connected and streaming, you can specify the resolution and framerate by going in the "Change Resolution or Framerate" option, and overwriting the numbers; this camera can go up to 640 x 480 @ 75 FPS, or 320 x 240 @ 150 FPS :-)
Industrial cameras are not products that you can buy in stores, you usually have to shop on the manufacturer's website. You will also have to buy a lens for the camera, so it might be very helpful to talk to a sales representative. You *might* have to install the camera's software on the PC in order to setup the camera before Webcam Zone Trigger can use it. It is a more complicated process, but it might be the only way to get the features you need for your project.
Industrial cameras usually give a better image quality because of the lens, and often they do not compress images like webcams do (most cameras compress images to use less USB bandwidth, the software driver will uncompress the images on the PC). They might allow very high framerate, or very high resolution.
Most industrial cameras are not useful out-of-the-box, you are expected to write software for them. However, some manufacturers do provide Direct-X compatible drivers.
Teledyne Flir's Blackfly series cameras are directly supported by Webcam Zone Trigger when the SpinView software is installed. You should adjust the camera's settings in SpinView, then save settings in the camera's default profile. | |
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Matrix Vision's mvBlueFox series come with a driver for third-party software. | |
IDS uEye cameras come with a driver for third-party software. During installation of IDS Software Suite, select the DirectX/DirectShow option. |
*We are not affiliated to any camera resellers.
Probably not. Most digital cameras are not designed to be webcams, and manufacturers rarely provide drivers to use them as such. Although some DSLR have a "live viewerfinder" that can be streamed to the DSLR software on the PC, it is not a high framerate video source.