what to use! 3ccd Camcorder or a Webcam?

[wannabgeek]

Hi hope you can Ps help! :
As i am not too clued up on Webcams would it be better for me to use my 3ccd Camcorder (Pana gs400) as a webcam or should i buy a dedicated webcam? If i was to get a dedicated one i was thinking of the Logi quickcam 4000!
Also if i use the Cam can i use it on the Firewire opposed to usb?
I also understand that there is other kinds of drivers that make the quality better!

Ps I am on Aim (Aol 2mb) if that helps!

[subucni]

Don't really know a lot about webcams, but what i do know is that i once set up my canon xm1 as a webcam and the quality seemed a lot better than any webcam i had seen (can't say i've seen a lot though). I just set it up using firewire through msn. worked fine. only problem was that because the camera was set in record mode but not actually recording, it would automatically go into standby mode after 10mins even if it was connected to the mains. i found that a way of getting around this though was to press eject on the cassette mechanism and just leave it open so it sits there waiting for a tape (not the best thing to do but it worked). Obviously you might not even have this problem but mentioned it just incase.

Also, never tried using it ,or really even read about it myself but i know canon do a free program designed for using a camera as a webcam. No idea if it'll work with your GS400, but it's a free download and you've already got the equipment so it's got to be worth a try. I'll have a look for a link to it for you.

:edit: Found it, http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/con...9&modelid=9400

Bres

[rajagra]

Glad you reminded me of this kind of thing, been meaning to try it myself.
See:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/video/20041008/
http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/webcamdv.html

[wannabgeek]

Thanks for your help. My Cam actually does stat that it can be used as a webcam so i should'nt think i'll get the stand by prob. What is strange though i cannot seemed to find any info about users who actually use it for this purpose!