Even if you’re plugging into a computer, actually, I’d say get an analog camera, like a security camera. There are fantastic-quality security cameras out there. eBay is a good source if you do some scouring, or you might just stop by your local security camera dealer, depending on where you live. (Check the yellow pages if you’re in a decent-sized town.) I think the quality is often superior to what you can get with webcams. And there are fine-quality FireWire conversion boards out there.

If you were set on a webcam, I’d suggest the Logitechs; they work quite nicely with the jit.dx.grab object. But you wouldn’t be able to plug an analog input in, so you’d have less flexibility.