Webcam may be, Go not!
Written: Apr 11 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reasonable webcam (for netmeeting)
Cons: Very bad Software, bad image quality for digital pictures
The Bottom Line: The idea was good. The product is not, image quality and software stability seem a thing of the past. Go for something better.
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| antoniof's Full Review: Creative Labs Video Blaster WebCam 3 |
This has not been my first webcam. Just few months after having bought a regular (not a"Go") Webcam III, Creative Labs came out with this new one. I really liked the idea of combining a webcam with a digital camera and I was annoyed by the fact that Creative Labs did not offer any "upgrade" path or "fidelity" option. Anyway, I managed to resist for 6 months, then I saw it in a local shop window and I had to have it.
The experience has been painful, and the pain started right from the installation, in fact no matter what I did to the Webcam settings, the images tended always towards blue-ish grades of colours. I managed to find a combination that was realistic enough by placing a 30W light behind the webcam. This was enough to get a very good quality in netmeeting (and to get me half blind too). The pain become even bigger when it was time to detach the webcam from the PC and try to use it as a digital camera. The focus ring is doggy to say the least. You never understand when it is in the right position. I ended up by having it always set on the "panoramic" setting. When I finally managed to get pictures, the quality was really disappointing. Fuzzy, out of focus 8 times out of 10, a real, real disappointment. These pictures cannot be used even for a low-quality web page or to send to your relatives some shots of your holiday. The other pain comes with the software, and in particular with the webcam control. It is really prone to crashes, on the Creative Labs they suggest you to "disable hardware acceleration" on your graphics card to solve this problem. They fail to mention that every time you change this setting (if you want to re-enable it, for instance) then you will have to reboot your machine. So, their idea is that if I want to use their webcam I have to give up the advantages of my new 3D 32 megs Geforce 2 MX video card and reboot every time I want to play Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator? Wrong, I think they should correct their program and their device instead. I did not give up the idea of a combined webcam/digital camera but I've given the Webcam III Go to my sister in law, it works fine as a webcam (with a small light behind her PC) and I went for a better product, as you can see on another of my epinions.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
antoniof
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Location: Vise', Belgium
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
IT Professional since 1992. Italian, Married, living in Belgium.
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