From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: January 21, 2008 1:22:58 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] New DMK Camera--FireWire or USB?

Hi Jeff and others;

On 21-Jan-08, at 12:46 PM, Jeff Phillips wrote:

Finally going to order a new DMK 21Ax04.US camera. With my MacBook, does it matter if I get a USB or FireWire camera? I'm leaning toward USB for resale value in a PC world.

Yes it does make a difference.

We don't support their USB Camera and likely won't be supporting them for years to come. There are no Mac drivers for them either so if you do biuy it, it won;yt work with other Mac software.

There is no industrial open camera standard for USB cameras and with most companies everyone "does their own thing". This means you have to get their low level private register addresses, learn all the ins and outs of how their camera hardware works (or doesn't) and then write an App specifically for their camera. If they change their registers layouts or add or remove features, they break your software or you re-write it.

By contrast, the IIDC FireWire standard is in use by hundreds of companies and software generally just works out of the box with 3rd party software.

So yes it does make a difference what you buy.

Hope that Helps..

Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@outcastsoft.com