Top of the line Philips Vesta Pro the best?
Written: Jun 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Images, Relatively Cheap, Great Stand
Cons: Win2000 Install Issues.
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| Krosnoff's Full Review: Philips PC Camera |
Finally I had a reason to use Microsoft Netmeeting but that's another story. As a result I found myself at the store looking at the webcams for sale. Ended up buying two that night - the Philips Vesta Pro and the IBM PC Cam Pro. I wanted to compare two "pro" models. The results can be summed up by the fact that I'm returning the IBM and keeping the Philips!
The Vesta Pro installed fairly smoothly on my Gateway PIII running Win 98 Second Edition. While the install CD contained some other free software, my install consisted of the drivers only. When the test screen for the webcam finally came up I was quite impressed. This is the first webcam in it's price range that can compete with the 3Com Homeconnect. The images are very close in sharpness and quality - that means this cam is great!
They claim 800x600 resolution in the literature and it seems like you get most of that. The frame rate on this USB cam is quite good and video is smoooth. It worked very well with Netmeeting 2 & 3, Webcam32, and ISpy. I especially like the 3 legged metal adjustable stand that screws into the bottom of the cam. It's much better than the stupid little rubber feet you see on the box.
**NOTE** For fun I tried this cam with Windows 2000. Ack, that did not go so well. During the driver install it kept asking for extra files that were not on it's CD. It took some real screwing around to get it going on Win 2000. That's true with a lot of USB hardware so don't think I'm picking on Philips.
My Summary:
Price\Value - Under $100 EXCELLENT!!
Image Quality - EXCELLENT
Notable Features - Built in Microphone, very cool stand, nice SW package.
!!!NOTE!!! Don't confuse this webcam with other Philips models. They all look about the same but there are about 5 different models. This is the top of the line VESTA PRO.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Krosnoff
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 7 members
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