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Is it good to use raspberry pi camera module for serious computer vision project using video or is it okay to use a usb webcam?

parthi82
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    It would help if we new the specs of the USB camera and your use case. Obviously a low pixel count USB camera will not perform as well as the 5 megapixel Raspberry Pi camera module. Likewise a USB camera may provider more mounting options. – Steve Robillard Jan 17 '15 at 08:47
  • I plan to use logitech webcam c170 to do some optical flow algorithm with opencv. the data will be a live feed video from the camera – parthi82 Jan 17 '15 at 11:02
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    This question shouldn't really have been closed, it's a good question that found a good answer. I am rather disappointed with the overzealous moderation on Stackoverflow. – zabumba Mar 23 '15 at 14:42
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    I also found this question beneficial – twinlakes Mar 30 '15 at 03:19
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    Can this question be "unclosed"? – Rendicahya May 29 '15 at 07:26
  • Wow the moderators reacted really stupidly on that one – Mehdi Dec 14 '18 at 09:48

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The Pi camera is 'run' by the GPU and can dump full frames into RAM at 15 frames a second .. this is 7.5MB/frame, 15fps = 112.5 Mega BYTES per second .. or you can have full HD resolution 30fps H264 encoded (by the GPU) along with some simultaneous still photos (Google MMAL) all at virtually zero CPU loading ..

On the other hand, the Pi USB is 'run' byte at a time by the CPU, and, at the cost of 100% CPU loading you might achieve a couple of hundred Mega BITS per second .. not that a web cam is going to deliver that anyway (even if it could, you then don't have any CPU cycles to do anything with it ..)

SO, unless CCTV resolutions (320x240 pixels) are what you want, it has to be the Pi camera.

Piman
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