Need a fast motion webcame for recording golf swing

[tonydt1g3r]

I am an avid golf fan, and want to record my golf swing to practice/learn. I signed up for this place called which charges about $1500 per 6 months. Their main service is being able to record your golf swing. Their equipment doesnt look very expensive and their software is pretty low tech. So I figured I could write my own software that could do the same thing. However I cant seem to figure out what type of camera to use along with my computer. I've tried using a few webcams, with the best result being a Logitech Quickcam 9000 pro, but I am afraid my swing motion is too fast and I cant capture the exact location of the club shaft throughout the swing. It doesnt need to be perfectly clear just somewhat. The equipment they use at the place that charges $1500 has some old cameras hooked up through s-video to the computer and the image quality is pretty fuzzy but you get a pretty good indication of where the club is, its not crystal clear but you pretty much know where it is. I was hoping I could duplicate it with some type of USB camera to cut down cost. I am guessing an average golf swing is about 2- 3 seconds. I'd probably only need like 10fps just clear frames. Do you guys have any suggestions as to what to buy and what settings to use? I am currently using 320x240 frame size and 15 fps.

Thanks

 

[twogun]

I don't know anything about a golf swing but I'd just buy a camcorder that uses flash memory like Canon's FS100. They are very nice units, small, good quality and with 37X optical zoom. The video clips are stored as files on the flash card and they can easily be viewed on a PC.

Sam's Club is currently listing the Canon FS100 for about $260. I would think that mounting that on a $30 tripod would work well for your purpose.

Good luck.