Suggestion for camera/printer (id cards)

I was wondering if anyone has experience with using VB6 to gather pictures of people and then printing id cards with those images.

I'm interested in what camera features are important.

And what is needed to print laminated id cards.

Thanks!

i guess if you buy the machine to print the cards (like drivers licenses), it would likely come with application software, if you just want to print on paper of some type, then laminate, you would be able to make a print routine from any program you can capture the camera picture into a picture box

I am looking to make this a small part of a large application I have.

I would prefer my own "capture" routine right in my code - so the user isn't using outside app to take picture.

there are several activexs available to capture snapshots from webcam etc

also i would be looking to see if the printers have exposed objects or sdk

Webcam's scare me a bit - have you ever captured a still image from one (I have not used use one yet)? Are they a good quality - similar to what you would get with a digital still camera?

some of the webcams now are megapixel and many digital still cameras can be used as webcams anyway

yes i have captured snapshots, but not from my own programming, though after this thread i might be looking at trying it....................

i would do a search on threads for webcam topics to see what has gone before

Webcam might end up being my solution.

Issues I can see immediately are the lack of auto-focus and flash. I'm going to search for a webcam with these features.

We have a hard enough time getting the security officer to take a good picture as it is - I'm afraid that with a webcam the quality will drop.

95% of the pictures are taken by year book photographers - so they have incredible quality - I'm looking to bring up these ones the best I can.

Moved to General Developer At OP's Request

after several searches i finally found this thread again .......

did you get snapshots from camera
after some searching and hacking at the code i found, i have been able to take snapshots from webcam

i figure using a timer you could take multiple snaps at interval, then the operator can choose the best to print, as id cards are small super good resolution is probably unneccessary, focus and flash could be avoided, by using a photo station or booth, constant focus and suitable lighting, same as they do here for drivers licence

the code i worked on uses amcap, and took a bit of effort to make it work, but it would appear there are other methods available too

Some camera models can be controlled via a USB interface.
Mine, for example, comes with a remote shooting utility that replicates the on-camera interface, which means that all of its regular features, such as auto focus and metering—which webcams generally don't provide, or do very well—function normally. Unfortunately, because it's an SLR, there's no way to view the image on screen before taking the shot; however, this is likely to be possible with compact cameras.

Some links for remote shooting utilities:
Digital Camera Controls


Can't help with printing the cards, sorry.

@penagate - thanks for the info and the link

I'm trying to find a camera that has exposed API's for me to get at from VB so that I can put together my own remote-shoot and capture function.

I'll try to ask at the http://www.breezesys.com/ site for help - see if they are willing to give up some trade secrets...

I joined the Canon developers network - got to download half a dozen SDK's from them.

Waiting for the customer to decide what camera to purchase.

And hopefully this will all be easy.

Right now the only challenge I see is that the SDK seems to need to be called from C++ and I don't know C - so I'll have to overcome that somehow when developing my functions for my VB6 app to use.