I found this earlier and it would make sense to use a WebCam instead of a PiCamera for performance. Its a trade though. Feb 15 '15 before the Pi3+
The Pi camera is 'run' by the GPU and can dump full frames into RAM at 15 frames a second .. (Bobs NOTE: So the MAX is 15 fps for a Pi Cam according to this in 2015) this is 7.5MB/frame, 15fps = 112.5 Mega BYTES per second .. or you can have full HD resolution 30fps H264 encoded (by the GPU) along with some simultaneous still photos (Google MMAL) all at virtually zero CPU loading ..
The Pi camera is 'run' by the GPU and can dump full frames into RAM at 15 frames a second .. (Bobs NOTE: So the MAX is 15 fps for a Pi Cam according to this in 2015) this is 7.5MB/frame, 15fps = 112.5 Mega BYTES per second .. or you can have full HD resolution 30fps H264 encoded (by the GPU) along with some simultaneous still photos (Google MMAL) all at virtually zero CPU loading ..
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/26912/rapberry-pi-camera-module-vs-usb-camera
I am going to post this question directly on the Raspberry Pi forum. But I am thinking for Inference the webcam is the best choice. Post back soon.
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