Creative Labs Webcam 3: Great For Beginners
Written: Jun 09 '00 (Updated Jun 12 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive, good resolution for a webcam, easy to set up
Cons: washed out colors, sometimes buggy software
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| clburdette's Full Review: Creative Labs Video Blaster WebCam 3 |
I didn't know a single thing about webcams when I bought my Creative Labs Video Blaster Webcam 3. I knew I wanted a USB connection, and decent visual quality. Aside from that, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Now that I've had the thing for a while, I feel I have come to know what to look for in a webcam, and can share that here, and how my Webcam 3 measures up.
The first thing I took into consideration when shopping for a webcam was price. I really didn't want to spend much money because my connection is pretty slow, and I really don't know too many people I can talk to that have one also. This pretty much ruled out better cams like a $150 3Com unit I was drooling over.
The second thing, and pretty much the only other thing I knew about, was the resolution these cams are capable of. Having a 19" monitor, I've come to appreciate high resolution images because they just plain look better. Unfortunately, because of price, technology, and bandwidth restraints, a lot of webcams top out with a maximum resolution of 640 by 480 pixels. I really consider this to be a minimum acceptable resolution for image quality, so you can see that webcams in general have a long way to go before they're a truly viable visual communication tool. Just for comparison, most digital cameras support resolutions of 1024 by 768, which is much better quality than 640 by 480.
So the Creative Labs Video Blaster Webcam 3 was the least expensive camera I found that supported a resolution of 640 by 480.
I ripped open the box, skipped the instructions, and plugged this baby into one of my available USB ports. Start up Windows 98, and boom, it's recognized right away. Slip the CD that comes with the cam into the CD-ROM drive, load up the webcam software, restart the computer, and you're ready to go. It was literally that simple, probably the most simple computer component I've ever set up.
The cam comes with a utility for taking still images and recording video, Microsoft Netmeeting 2.1(I'd advise immediately upgrading to 3.01), And Polaroid PhotoMax, which is an image editing utility. Also included in the software bundle is a neat little program that watches your computer and records anyone who is using it when they arent supposed to. I imagine this could be useful for keeping kids off the computer when they're alone or supposed to be doing homework instead.
How does it run? This webcam eats up a lot of RAM, and while it worked just fine when I had 96mb, it works better with 128. My processor is fairly slow, 450mhz, and my video card is an aging nVidia Riva TnT based Diamond Viper v550. The webcam doesn't really challenge my computer too much, but, at times, you can feel that it aches for a bit more freedom. I get a consistent 28-30+ frames per second with only occasional hitches, which I would mainly contribute to my 2 1/2 year old 2.5gb hard drive.
As far as image quality goes, this cam could be much better. First off, it handles lighting horribly. I wanted to say low light at first, but truthfully, even normal light looks very dark on this camera. In order to get a good looking image, you almost have to have your room lit up like a movie set. For capturing what is immediately in front of the cam, I would recommend having a fairly bright light source directly above the monitor, or at the very least, somewhere close to it. Images look fairly sharp at 640 x 480, but not too hot at anything below that. This cam is capable of capturing at up to 24-bit color. The only problem: colors tend to be washed out pretty badly. Don't expect any brilliant reds or blues, most colors have a brownish tint to them even when the hue is set as well as possible.
There is a small button on top of the cam that allows you to take still pictures, much like a digital camera, without having to mess with software too much. Despite the relatively bad image quality, this can be useful for quick improvised images. I wouldn't recommend trying to take a family portrait with it though.
While it may seem like I am trashing this camera, to be honest, it's picture quality is much better than many I have seen online. I am simply setting a higher standard, and am not satisfied with the current state of webcam affairs.
As far as using this cam online, it has a sturdy, large base and adjustable neck, so you can change camera angles up and down a little without having to do the "look, you're a bird" effect. 640 x 480 24-bit color, which is the highest image quality on this cam, will only be useable with high bandwidths, and unfortunately, the webcam itself is only capable of 15 frames per second at this setting. I've gotten acceptable frame rates online while sending my video at 320 x 240 in 16-bit color. While the picture quality at that setting is not great, it's also not completely horrible.
My only real complaint with this camera while online is that it seems to conflict with Internet Explorer on occasion, and pretty badly at that. For instance, I had to reload my software earlier tonight because a crash completely disabled it. This is the only time this has happened though in 6 months, and usually a restart of Windows fixes the occasionally more frequent problem.
For the price, this is a good camera, but keep in mind that even expensive webcams don't look all that great. So go into the webcam arena with the knowledge that you'll be buying a product type that is for all intents and purposes, still in it's infancy.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
clburdette
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Member: Curtis Burdette
Location: california
Reviews written: 46
Trusted by: 19 members
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