Review of Free Webcam Software

Some months ago I decided to mess around with webcams and webcam software. I think my motivation for doing so went something along the lines of "it would be pretty nifty, if we could monitor the house when we go away on holiday and such". So, I looked around a bit for software, which would allow me to:

1. capture images and/or video streams.
2. somehow get the files onto a web server.

I came back empty handed from looking around and to cut back on time-spent-on-pretty-useless-stuff, I put the thing to rest.

Then, a few weeks ago, I decided to have another go and this time, I very quickly came across some very promising candidates (I must have looked in all the wrong places the first time…). In the following, I will do a very quick rundown of the pros and cons of six different webcam applications and do some sort of conclusion at the end. The six applications are (in no particular order): WebcamFirst, Fwink, Dorgem, DCAM Server, WebCapture and Yawcam.

Did I mention that these applications are all free and run on Windows? Here it goes…

WebcamFirst:

• Quickly abandoned due to the very confusing web site and instructions.

Fwink:

PRO:

• Very easy setup
• Uploads image by FTP, or saves it locally

CON:

• Only saves most recent image (image file name cannot be customized)
• very limited configurability
• No video - I could not access the video controls - camera not detected?
• No motion detection

Dorgem:

PRO:

• Supports using multiple cameras
• Can be set up to automatically combine captured images into an .avi video
• Supports upload using external program, such as SSH or SFTP.
• The builtin webserver can be set up to refresh image in browser.
• Motion detection, which cannot be configured

CON:

• Uses WinInet for FTP, which requires MS Internet Explorer to be installed
• Cannot stream video
• My machine crashes when I try to exit Dorgem
• Image capture stops at midnight (?)

The following two pieces of software have not been under development for the past couple of years.

DCAM Server:

PRO

• Supports using multiple cameras
• Builtin webserver
• Saves to FTP or locally

CON

• Captures images in 320×240 pixels - cannot be changed
• Captures image at fixed interval - cannot be changed
• No video

WebCapture:

PRO

• Easy configuration
• Builtin webserver
• FTP and local save

CON

• Comes across as somewhat "shaky"
• No video

Yawcam:

PRO:

• Stores images locally or uploads to FTP
• Publishes most recent image using builtin webserver
• Streams webcam video on web page using builtin webserver
• The latest beta version adds motion detection
• Can be configured to just store the most recent image, or it can store an array of images.
• Captured images can be combined into a .mov video.
• Despite its versatility, Yawcam is very easy to configure

CON:

• None really…maybe the ressource consumption on the host machine?

Essentially, it all boils down to a choice between Dorgem and Yawcam. Both applications fulfill any minimum requirements, so Dorgem is the way to go if you want something quick'n'dirty and Yawcam is the choice if you are looking for more options and functionality. I am very impressed by Yawcam, developed and maintained by Magnus Lundwall, a swedish computer science student from Göteborg. The application packs exactly the right features, while being very easy to setup and configure at the same time. This is especially true for the motion detection feature that is included in the latest beta version.

Finally, a small tip: If you configure any of the above applications to upload images to a server directory by FTP, you can use something like SPA photo album to create a simple and automagically updated, online album of images. SPA consists of a single PHP file and basically requires zero configuration.

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