a simple starting framework for grabbing frames from a camera or video file using OpenCV and python.

cv2_video_starter.py

import cv2

CAMERA_INDEX = 0
CODEC = cv2.cv.CV_FOURCC('D','I','V','X')
FPS = 15

def main():

    cam = cv2.VideoCapture()
    cam.open(CAMERA_INDEX)

    w = int(cam.get(cv2.cv.CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH))
    h = int(cam.get(cv2.cv.CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT))

    video = cv2.VideoWriter('video.avi',CODEC,FPS,(w,h))

    key = -1
    while key != 1048689:

        flag, frame = cam.read()

        if(flag == False):
            break

        cv2.imshow("frame",frame)

        video.write(frame)

        key = cv2.waitKey(30)

    video.release()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()