[Nottingham] Mega-pixel webcams

[Martin]

Martin wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> I've got a webcam working well enough but only at 640x320 even though it
> is supposed to be a 4 Mpixel sensor...
> 
> Is there any video software or webcam grab software that can capture the
> full resolution?
> 
> Or any webcam-software combinations that do that?
> 
> Or is there some magic trick to use the webcam like a camera?

Still hunting down this one!

The webcam components are an SN9C201 USB bridge and a Micron MT9M111
image sensor.

MT9M111:

1/3-INCH SOC MEGAPIXEL CMOS DIGITAL IMAGE SENSOR

Features
· DigitalClarityTM CMOS Imaging Technology · System-On-Chip
(SOC)--Completely integrated camera system · Ultra-low power, low cost,
progressive scan CMOS image sensor · Superior low-light performance ·
On-chip image flow processor (IFP) performs sophisticated processing:
Color recovery and correction Sharpening, gamma, lens-shading correction
On-the-fly defect correction · Filtered image downscaling to arbitrary
size with smooth, continuous zoom and pan · Automatic Features: Auto
exposure (AE) Auto white balance (AWB) Auto black reference (ABR) Auto
flicker avoidance Auto color saturation Auto defect identification and
correction · Fully automatic Xenon and LED-type flash support Fast
exposure adaptation · Multiple parameter contexts Easy/fast mode
switching · Camera control sequencer automates Snapshots Snapshots with
flash Video clips · Simple two-wire serial programming interface · ITU-R
BT.656 (YCbCr), 565RGB, 555RGB or 444RGB formats (progressive scan) ·
Raw and processed Bayer formats · Output FIFO and integer clock divider:
"Uniform" pixel clocking


TYPICAL VALUES

1/3-inch (5:4) 4.6mm (H) x 3.7mm(V), 5.9mm Diagonal
1,280H x 1,024V 3.6µm x 3.6µm
RGB Bayer Pattern Electronic Rolling Shutter (ERS)
27 MPS/54 MHz 15fps/30fps 10 bit, dual on-chip 1.0 V/lux-sec (550nm)


OK, so the sensor is 1280 x 1024 (1.3 Mpixels) aka "SXGA"

So much for the claimed for "4 Mpixels" on the packaging! I wonder where
they hid the word "interpolated" in microprint... Marketing people lie.


Meanwhile, the code at:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=drivers/media/video/gspca/sn9c20x.c;h=cdad3db33367970fface102998fecf79cd2fcf57;hb=HEAD

suggests that SXGA is now indeed supported. But only to appear sometime
in kernel 2.6.32?

Or is it already in 2.6.31? (Where to look to check?)


Cheers,
Martin

-- 
----------------
Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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