Depends what you want. The cheapest decent machine vision cameras that I know of are Basler's dart range, but they're still $100-300. Entry level is the DA2500-14uc (5MP 14fps).
You can also try places like Leopard Imaging or eCon systems. Even then, most of eCon's stuff is $150+ and their APIs feel a bit hacky.
This is all USB3. Unless you really need a mipi solution (you may need an adaptor board to match the), USB is fine. Even a webcam might be good enough.
What qualities does a decent machine vision camera have, besides price? size? resolution? lens/sensor quality? infrared? frame rate? latency? ruggedness?
I have a bunch of inexpensive IP security cameras. I imagine the latency (~second) would be prohibitive for machine vision camera applications, where you probably are making some control decision immediately? I'm curious how else they'd compare.
You can also try places like Leopard Imaging or eCon systems. Even then, most of eCon's stuff is $150+ and their APIs feel a bit hacky.
This is all USB3. Unless you really need a mipi solution (you may need an adaptor board to match the), USB is fine. Even a webcam might be good enough.