An Excellent Web Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: very high picture quality, built-in microphone works well, software provides extra video conference options

Cons: monitor clamp could be a little better, a fairly expensive camera

The Bottom Line: 
I recommend this camera highly as a web cam for anybody interested in quality. It's more expensive than other cameras, but the quality is outstanding.

Author's Review
I recently needed to purchase 2 web cameras in order to do a video conference for a special event. I did some research in a short amount of time and decided on this camera. I was quite pleased with my choice.

The camera is designed well. It's very compact and has a nice built-in microphone. It has a convenient clamp to attach it to a monitor or other device. It also comes with decent software to provide extra video conference options for those who aren't comfortable with just using AIM/Yahoo/MSN.

This is a high end web camera. It is capable of high resolution (over 2MP), which you won't see in the cheap $30 cameras. I tested out the capabilities on all 3 messengers and the image looked great on all of them. On a side note, the new AIM does a fantastic job with the video conferencing. With 2 of these cameras, the 2-way video conference was a great success. Keep in mind that there can be image problems due to differences in the internet connection on either end. My setup was a cable modem on both ends and the videos looked fantastic.

I only have 1 minor complaint about the camera. The monitor clamp could be designed a little better. It was a bit tough to get it to stay on my laptop screen. I did eventually get it to stay, but I think it could have included maybe a spring loaded clamp or something else to facilitate mounting it to a variety of different locations, especially when the camera costs around $100 to begin with.

Overall, this is an outstanding camera for anybody who wants top quality and/or will make frequent use of a web cam. At $100, it's a little pricey, but it's well worth it. If image quality is not a concern or if you won't make a lot of use of the camera, go with a cheaper one instead.