Webcams?

[killergamer]

Hey guys, I haven't been posting a lot but I have been doing a lot of other stuff with my time. As of a couple months ago I started learning sign language. Its amazing, to say the least. I have grown close to some of my friends that I work with that are deaf and joined the community here in my city. My two friends are teaching me but I have meet a lot of other people willing to show me more. Any ways since you can't really teach sign language over the phone I was looking for a good webcam. Every deaf person I've meet so far has had a webcam and my two best friends have one. I would need it to be fairly clear as well. That can run with Win7 for my new laptop and under $70. I really have never been told what a good web cam is and unfortunately when I bought this laptop it didn't have a web-cam. So any ideas on a good webcam? It would speed up my speeding since I don't get to see my friends often.

+Rep to any one that knows of some good ones.

[OvRiDe]

Wow.. thats great! My daughter is deaf and she and her friends use a Sorenson Videophone to talk to each other.

http://www.sorensonvrs.com/images/vp200.png

As for webcams, I have had the best luck with name brand cams, and specifically Logitech. Microsoft has published a list of Win7 compatible devices. Find one you like off of it and you should be good to go.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Browse.aspx?type=Hardware&category=Cameras%20%26%20Photo&subcategory=Webcams

What software are you planning on using? I know if your friends have VP's from Sorenson, there is Desktop app that is basically the VP software on your computer.

[killergamer]

I'm not sure what software I want to use. They all have VRS, so that would be cool if I could call them through that but I've been told its free only for family of deaf and some one deaf them selves. Its kind of cool because my managers are allowing me to interpreter for them when they have a problem with my friend who is also a co-worker. I like logitech so I might go get one of theirs on my next pay check and I will have to look into diffrent software. My friends have skype and msn.

[d_stilgar]

If you have a decent Canon camera already you could just buy this software (http://www.extrawebcam.com/). It turns your canon camera into a webcam. The video quality will depend on your camera, but it should be pretty decent.

I second Logitech as well. I've used Logitech cameras before and they are great.

[OvRiDe]

Just an FYI on the Videophone software. If your friends have them from Sorenson, you can connect to them using Netmeeting and their external IP address.

[crenn]

I have a couple of Microsoft Webcams, both are very good quality.