[Greg McKaskle]

If you intend to use a camera with WPILib, I'd either purchase an Axis 206 or M1011 from an existing team, or purchase the M1013 through AndyMark or another retailer.

I say "if", because you are able to experiment with the vision examples even without a camera. FIRST provided image files of the field targets to help get an example of how they work and the info they provide back to the robot. This allows you to learn a bit about the utility of the camera before investing in one. The other benefit of the camera, of course, is to give the driver an image feed.

If your team decides it doesn't need either of these, you can spend the money somewhere else. Please don't get me wrong. I think image processing presents a great learning opportunity for teams of all experience levels, and I'm sad to see it not be in the KOP, but I won't declare it as a must have purchase either. I think one of the values of FIRST is to dispel the CSI style of pseudo-babble that poses as science, and I feel that the camera pretty quickly brings reality back into the picture. They are very useful sensors, but not magical.

Greg McKaskle