If you look closely at the table of supported and unsupported webcams, you will see that the Philips PCVC720 (ToUCam XS) and Creative Labs Webcam 5 are listed in both colums. So are they supported by the PWC driver, or not?
The answer is: yes, and no (har, har. You probably saw that one coming :-)). To put it simply, these cameras come in different versions. And although the model number is (nearly) the same, the internals are quite different. For example, the earlier PCVC720K was based on the OmniVision OV511 chipset, but nowadays is built upon a Philips chipset and is compatible with my driver. The situation for the Creative Labs Webcam 5 is exactly reversed: the older cams are supported by PWC, but not the newer ones.
So how can you tell them apart? The PCVC720K is easy; the new model is labelled as PCVC720K/40; the older model as PCVC720K/20. Unfortunately, this information does not seem to be on the outside of the box (look closely!), but it is printed on the label attached to the USB cable of the camera. Of course you can't see that when the camera is in the box, so when you are in a shop and in doubt, ask a sales representative to open the box for you and take a look at the label. However, even if that is not possible and you buy the "wrong" camera, that's not a disaster since the PCVC720K/20 model is fully supported by the OV511 driver for Linux.
The situation for the Creative Labs Webcam 5 is not so simple, unfortunately. The only way to tell them apart (that I currently know of) is by looking at the USB Vendor & Product IDs. But to do that the cam must be plugged in, and thus out of the box, and thus you cannot return it if you want to... I would very much like to receive information on any differences between the two models. Perhaps there is a difference in color, casing, packaging etc. that will set the two models apart.
To summarize:
Webcam model | USB Vendor ID | USB Product ID | Supported by |
---|---|---|---|
PCVC720K/20 | 0x05A9 | 0x0518 | OV511 |
PCVC720K/40 | 0x0471 | 0x0313 | PWC |
'old' Creative Labs Webcam 5 | 0x041E | 0x400C | PWC |
'new' Creative Labs Webcam 5 | 0x041E | 0x400D | ??? |
To see the IDs from your plugged-in USB devices, execute the following command:
# grep ^P /proc/bus/usb/devices
Hope this clears things up for you.