Camcorder with webcam functionality...
 

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a camcorder with usb streaming so it can also function as a webcam. I've had a very hard time finding very many which do that, and of the very few I've found it seems they may not be compatible with Mac. Can anyone help? I was hoping it would also have a high optical zoom, image stabilization, and night shot. I don't care which recording format as long as it has these functions.

I use a sony pd170 as a webcam on my PC. I hook it up with a firewire

Thanks for the reply, but I need it to be USB streaming functionality. Not firewire.

What software on the Mac are you using that only accepts USB as a video input? Most webcam software for Mac will accept Firewire and USB, the problem is that most video cameras don't have USB drivers for Mac.

The USB issue and the mac issue are seperate. I need USB streaming for the webcam functionality because of the streaming/videomail/videochat/video podcast etc. service I'm using, which works on both Mac and PC. When I use the camcorder to film things I want to edit (recording, not webcam use), I'll use my Mac and iMovie. The apple support site provides a list of "compatible" camcorders, and I'm using that to be sure I'll be able to import my recorded video into iMovie.

I suggest you get a webcam for the usb streaming video. usb can not support a good quality video as a live stream.

I have an old SD Sony Digital Mini-DV DCR TRV-25 it dose what you want....you can find them on the used market just make sure they still have original drivers disk also.

Here is the snipet from an old review
Sony DCR-TRV25 Camcorder Review - Sony MiniDV Camcorders

"The DCR-TRV25 adds USB streaming, which has also been added to many other Sony digital camcorders. This feature allows the user to hook the camcorder up to their camcorder and stream 320 x 240 video, effectively using the camcorder as a web cam. This feature can be used to shoot video for emails, for the web, or for videoconferencing."

It comes with the required drivers, hope that helps.

I have one and have been thinking of getting rid of it since I have gone HD. It has been a great camera it's what I used to start dong weddings and made me enough $$ to upgrade my gear, just haven't done it

Thanks Curtis, that helps. Anyone else know of any other camcorder models? I have a top of the line logitech webcam, but it does not have any optical zoom, and the picture is not as good as when I've used my friends Samsung camcorder. His is old though, so I figured there would be more, better ones out there now.

Pretty much any tape based firewire camera will work with iMovie. I have only come across one Samsung model that would not work with iMovie, but that was back at iMovie version 4, so not a camera you would pick up new anywhere.

This topic reminds me...
 

... that I have just installed Skype and would love to be able to use my old D8 Sony TRV330 for video chat. Will the software resize the picture or, as Windows/Live Messenger did a while ago when I tested, only show the middle of the screen (probably 360x240 pixels)? Or will Skype stream the full 720x480 pixels?

Does anyone know? Thanks,

The Sony PDX-10 had USB streaming built-in. I never used it on mine because the software was PC-only. I believe this same capability existed in the consumer version of the camera - the TRV-950. It may also have appeared in the next (and final) version in that series which was the HC3 IIRC.

You may be able to find some of these in the used marketplace for good prices. However the USB streaming mode did not provide a full resolution image. I think there was a choice of a couple smaller formats to use.

I got a used TRV50 for $200 from eBay that has USB streaming and wireless Bluetooth. Never needed either functionality, though.

I use a USB composite adaptor (EasyCap) to do it. Quality is significantly better than any dedicated webcam I've tried :)

Tried it with Canon HF10 and FS100.