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Believe it or not, I found an old Compaq cam that had its own power supply. It rocks! It even has hardware-based white balance, brightness and contrast. The colors are correct, and the output can be sent (via rca cable) to another webcam or even a capture card. No, I have no idea where to find these now, but I imagine a used computer store would have them and really not know how good they are. It seems to be more of a video cam than a webcam.
Yes, buy the best one you can afford. You'll get better hardware, and possible even a glass front lens (instead of plastic.) Keep in mind that USB only supplies something like 5v. If you have a bunch of stuff handing off of that USB bus, there are possible voltage drops, which could choke certain items further down the food chain (like a webcam!)
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