zc3xx webcam crashes on in-focus pictures

[Johannes Bauer <dfnsonfsduifb@gmx.de>]

Hi list,

the problem I'm having sounds really weird and strange, please bear with
me -- I do not know who else to ask or what to search for.

I have a Logitech Labtec webcam:

Bus 001 Device 012: ID 046d:08a2 Logitech, Inc. Labtec Webcam Pro

Which I use with the zc3xx driver on a 2.6.34 Linux:

usb 1-3.2: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 12
gspca: probing 046d:08a2
zc3xx: probe sensor -> 000e
zc3xx: Find Sensor PAS202B
input: zc3xx as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-3/1-3.2/input/input7
gspca: video0 created
gspca: found int in endpoint: 0x82, buffer_len=8, interval=10
gspca: probing 046d:08a2
gspca: probing 046d:08a2

I'm using mplayer for playback. This works nicely for the most part.
However, as soon as I get things in focus (or make images of things that
have sharp edges), the driver chokes -- mplayer just displays

v4l2: select timeout

And no more frames appear. As soon as I put the pictures back out of
focus, frames are updated again.

I've noticed this problem about a year back when I tried automatic
recognition of QR codes with that camera. Since QR codes basically
consist ONLY of sharp edges (black/white), the camera totally choked
upon shown one. Back then I ditched the whole project and found another
solution.

Now I just tried to hook the camera up to my microscope for fun. As a
test image, I made an image of a ruler. It worked pretty nicely, but you
guessed it: As soon as I put the image in focus, the camera chokes.

Has anyone ever heared of a similar problem with that driver? Or may
that even be a hardware fault? Lastly, can anyone recommend a
high-quality webcam that runs smoothly on Linux?

Best regards,
Joe