Looking for Pro-Quality Webcam

[scottbuck]

This relates to the muddled transitional zone between commercial video equipment and standard computer "chat" webcams. I've been looking for a product that everyone agrees "just has to exist..." yet no one (so far) knows how to locate. Any leads will be followed up, and specific suggestions will be Most Gratefully acted on!

I need to quickly locate and purchase a professional quality webcam for scientific research.

Ideally, I'm looking for an already-available product which I can purchase by next week. If no one makes a satisfactory webcam, then I would like to ask about hacks which would allow us to use Canon products and perhaps other cameras as a high-quality, zoom-lens, streaming webcam. (Were relevant Canon hacks discussed some months back?)

Here are the features we need:
o USB output (standard webcam-format video)
o Mac-compatible
o reasonably-good quality optics
o variable focus or (better-yet) auto-focus
o optical zoom
o works well in low-light conditions
o external mic jack
o standard tripod mount (optional, but need this feature if possible)

STANDARDS: HD / 1080p output would be adequate and slightly better than we need, so the other criteria above are more important than any "magic number" for resolution However we will need fairly decent resolution. I'm certain that almost any modern industrial camera could fill these requirements IF it has an output compatible with USB webcam standards.

An alternative might be to buy a consumer camera which has regular HD output and find an HD video-to-webcam converter. Has anyone heard of one?

Feel free to send me e-mail directly if you know of such a device. Thanks in advance for your help.

Scott Buckley
President / Owner
Research Prototypes & Audio Prototypes
Portland OR

E-mail: prototypes2001@yahoo.com