What webcam can I buy that works out of the box with Ubuntu?

10.04 hardware webcam

9,011

Solution 1

According to the webcam page on the wiki, there is a list on the Linux UVC page that keeps track of compatible cameras.

Personally I've had great support with Logitech cameras. They have a page that shows which models work with Linux out of the box.

Solution 2

You might want to have a look at the Hardware Compatibility List from Ubuntu, especially the section about webcams.

Solution 3

You can take a look here.

Many webcams will "just work" in Ubuntu. There is a USB standard that defines USB streaming video called UVC. This stands for Universal Video Class, and it does for webcams what UMS does for USB memory sticks and hard drives. This allows one driver to work with many webcams. When looking to purchase a webcam for use with Ubuntu, you should look for a UVC compatible camera. The Linux-UVC project has a good list of UVC compatible webcams as well as The Quickcam Team for Logitech cameras.

What you can do is test the webcam at the store with a LiveCD or your laptop. If you have a desktop you can test it at home and if it doesn't work you return it. This last thing is what I did when I bought my webcam (Genius iSlim 330 - works out of the box).

Solution 4

See this,

Supported cams:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsMultimediaWebCameras

Solution 5

The Logitech C200 has been reported as a webcam that works out of the box on Lucid,

Most UVC compliant webcams will work in Linux in general, here is a list of UVC Compliant cam hardware from Logitech: http://www.quickcamteam.net/devices/logitech_uvc_device_list.pdf

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9,011

jldugger

DevOps Engineer

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

jldugger over 1 year

I need to set up a video conference, yet I have no webcam. I'm looking to buy something that works out of the box with Ubuntu 10.04, and as many possible conferencing apps as possible. Can anyone recommend me something I might be able to find at a local store?
jldugger over 13 years

Thanks! I was already leaning towards the Logitech C510, even though it wasn't on quickcamteam's list. I picked it up and it's working like a champ. I wonder if I'll ever get over Linux Device Compatibility Anxiety Disorder.
Jorge Castro over 13 years

Don't forget to drop the quickcamteam a note so they can update their database for the next person!
jldugger over 13 years

Aren't the quickcamteam logitech employees? My assumption is that whatever document hasn't been updated has a reason behind it.
Jorge Castro over 13 years

It would be useful to find out why the cam isn't on the page already.
jldugger over 13 years

I ended up buying a C510, and it appears to work fine with Cheese. Am I missing something about the quality? What preferences were you tweaking?
koanhead over 13 years

On first opening Cheese, things were very green and so I adjusted the Hue and Saturation sliders in Edit -> Preferences until things looked more or less ok. Just reopened it now, and it looks all right and the sliders are in the centred position. So there's nothing wrong with the camera or with Cheese (although I still prefer guvcviewer).
harmputman over 11 years

@pwnguin, does the C510 work with Motion? The C270 on 10.04 64-bit does not.
jldugger over 11 years

I have no idea. Not sure what Motion is.