Comment 1 for bug 137981

Actually you can: you can select default v4l device from gstreamer-properties. However, you cannote choose between v4l or v4l2 source.

I have a v4l webcam (doesn't work with v4l2, it works with Camorama and GStreamer anyway) and a video capture card (v4l2 compliant), cheese looks just for v4l2 source.