Getting native python packages to cooperate with windows is always a lot of fun. I recently needed to use OpenCV with an up-to-date python installation on an windows 8 machine. Following steps worked fine in my case:

  1. Installing the 64 bit version of python 3.4 for windows (scroll down for the windows x86-64 MSI installer). During installation, add python to your path so you can use pip from your command line.
  2. Verify your python version by typing python --version into your command line. It should output Python 3.4.x, where x stands for any number.
  3. Head to http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ to find prebuild python packages for windows. Download OpenCV (opencv_python‑3.0.0‑cp34‑none‑win_amd64.whl) and its dependency NumPy (numpy‑1.9.2+unoptimized‑cp34‑none‑win_amd64.whl), both for 64 bit systems. “Cp34” stands for your python version 3.4.x.
  4. Install both files by running pip install opencv_python‑3.0.0‑cp34‑none‑win_amd64.whl and pip install numpy‑1.9.2+unoptimized‑cp34‑none‑win_amd64.whl in your terminal.
  5. Verify the installation: Type python into your command line to open the python console. Then type import cv2 and press enter. When there is no error message you can happily go on using OpenCV!