Comment 56 for bug 385344

Here's my solution posted on bug #981803;

This is how I fixed my poor FPS in cheese, on Ubuntu 12.04;

1) sudo apt-get install guvcview;

2) Under image controls look for the drop-down menu item "Exposure, Auto" and select "Manual Mode";

                     "TAB" select the next option!!!

3) You should "TAB" select to the slider bar beneath "Exposure, Auto" labeled "Exposure (Absolute) - use your right arrow key to bump up the selection. Mine was set to "156" so I knocked it up to "157" then down to "155", and back again to "156". Now my exposure it fine, and I get a solid 30fps at 1280x720.

I'm not sure how or why this works, but it seems the exposure it set way too high or something.

Anyway, just quit out of guvcview and launch cheese. Everything should be working now. Or at least it did for me.