moticam 350

[thaiski]

Hello
Is a Moticam 350 a DirectShow camera ? Can I drive this camera using NI-IMAQ for USB Cameras ?
Thank you
Th

[VGA_CD-ROM]

Hi thaiski,

I was not able to find any specific documentation that said whether the camera was DirectShow compliant or not. As you probably know, a camera must be DirectShow compliant to be used with NI-IMAQ for USB, and IMAQ for USB requires our Vision Development Module to function properly. Your best bet would be to contact the manufacturer, Motic, directly and ask them if the cameras are DirectShow compliant.

[thaiski]

Hello
I've got following answer:

"Thank you for contacting Motic Instruments.
If DirectShow supports TWAIN drivers then this camera would be compatible otherwise it can only be used on the Motic program."

So what now ?

Thanks for help

[VGA_CD-ROM]

Hi thaiski,
Unfortunately, TWAIN and DirectShow are two separate driver interfaces. While some cameras support both DirectShow and TWAIN, they are not mutually compatible. It looks like you will be restricted to using the Motic software.

Graftek Imaging, one of our Alliance partners which specializes in machine vision solutions, apparently does sell a wrapper that will allow TWAIN devices to be used within LabVIEW. It looks like it's compatible with LabVIEW 6.x and 7.x on Windows 9x/2k/XP. It is listed here. To see if it is supported on any later platforms, your best bet would be to contact them directly.

[thaiski]

I know this camera can be driven by matlab. Can I create my own VI ?
th

[VGA_CD-ROM]

Do you know how it accesses the camera? I'm assuming it has its own built-in TWAIN driver or something. If that's the case, you may not be able to do it. However, if you can find what DLL it uses (or the DLL the Moticam software uses)  to speak to the camera, and if you have access to the documentation for that DLL (this is unlikely), you could use the Call Library Function Node in LabVIEW to talk to it through DLL calls.

[Motic]

Hello all,

Just came upon this discussion. Are you sure you have a Moticam 350 (not 352)? We discontinued the Moticam 350 some time ago.
However, this is actually DirectShow compliant.
Only our Higher-Resolution cameras from 1.3MP upwards are not.

So if you have a Moticam 350, 352, 353, 480 or 483, where the live output is VGA quality, then it is DirectShow compliant.

Sorry for the confusion. Should you have any questions, please let us know on info.digital@motic.com

Regards,

Reto

Reto Wieland
Product Manager - Digital Microscopy
Motic Microscopes

[quixomniac]

Is this still true?

http://www.motic.com/upload/File/new_moticam_booklet_EN.pdf
I found one of your motic brochures that claims moticam 2 & 3 are direct show compliant
These are high resolution.
However, while I can find the TWAIN driver, I cannot find the Direct show

[tomofarmer]

I've tested the Moticam 2 with Window 7. The camera appears as an imaging device under device drivers but will NOT appear in DirectShow driven apps like AMCap. Boo har. We need the OS to recognize the cam directly for use in a kiosk application driven by Flash.