I’m not a computer person. There, I said it. Even though I would much rather deal with computers, emails and the occasional virus over people – it doesn’t mean that I am an expert in the field. Suffice it to say that this webcam purchase was a spur of the moment impulse buy; I wanted something that I could use as a digital camera and when I saw that it has webcam features for under a hundred dollars, it was all I could do to not squeal with excitement. That elation soon faded when I saw the results of the digital images and grain web broadcast … what was I thinking? I’ve had this cam for over two years now and I just can’t get rid of it; I purchased a total of six other digital cameras and webcams and all of them have – for one reason or another – broke, failed to work with my computer or were complete and utter pieces of garbage.

Let’s face the fact that most people purchase a webcam for one reason – instant adult gratification. That’s not to say that every single one purchased is used for that reason, sure your mom might want to see the grandkids who live thousands of miles away and it’s great for those who are in the military to keep up with their family life when deployed - but - a vast majority of them end up being used for more “adult applications”. When this was first released it had a hundred dollar price tag on it – walk in to any store today and you can get one that’s ten times better for less than half that price. Even so, it’s the only one that hasn’t burned out, broke or otherwise managed to eat itself at some stage in the game – so I am literally stuck wit this until a suitable replacement comes on the scene. Does it get used for naughty things? Well, I’ve never been one to kiss and tell but I will say this – I’ve gotten extremely creative when it comes to having proper lighting when using it.

So why would someone ever want to buy one of these? Well, the fact that serves a dual purpose is the biggest attraction – a digital camera and a webcam all in one – plus the ability to capture 15 – 30 second mini movies, the provided software and more – all this adds up to one hell of an impressive sales pitch … but it is really worth it? By today’s standards it isn’t but when it was purchased, it was the average price for one of these combo packages and since it’s been the only one that has actually worked for me … I have to give it some type of a good mark in that area. This would probably be best for those who aren’t really planning on using the digital camera or webcam on a regular basis but do want something that will give them better than average results when they do plan on using it. But in complete honesty, there are other brands and models out there that are just as good, cost less and are much easier to get the hang of using. You have to really sit down and do your own research and see which one suits your needs – this might be the exact thing you are looking for or it might be something that is used a few times and tossed aside. Spending some time reading about the different cams on the market is an absolute must – even if money is no object, you still have to know what you are getting and if the end result justifies the means.

Creative Labs Video Blaster Plus Webcam

Providing you with several different formats to save photos, this is an average digital camera. The biggest downfall of this is that there is no built in flash so you will need to make sure that you are using this in a well lit area, outdoors working better than indoors. What you see through the viewfinder isn’t always what you end up getting when you upload the photos to your computer so make sure that you try to take a few photos from different angles, this will help increase the number of acceptable shots to work with. You can choose from still frames, delayed shooting, movie feature and delayed movie feature modes by choosing the appropriate button on the back of the unit. The action or snapshot button is located on the top of the camera so you won’t have to fumble with it being in an inconvenient spot. Using the time delay features can work against you in some cases – especially if you are waiting to shoot something that happens rarely – like deer in your back yard or that weird neighbor that takes the trash out in the nude. If the cam is left idle for about 90 seconds it will emit a beep and power down to save on batteries – great in one way, bad in another. There is no way to over ride this so you will need to press one of the buttons on the back of the camera to keep it active.

Powered by two AAA sized batteries, you should be able to get about three hours of use from it; that might not sound like a lot but when you consider that it takes about two seconds to take a picture, it’s a pretty lengthy period of time. With that said, it does go through batteries like crazy – the powering up and shutting down takes its toll on them as well as when making the mini movies – so the three hours that Creative claims that this has is a real stretch of the truth. The automatic shut off feature is a good selling point but a true inconvenience when it comes to trying to capture once in a lifetime things like someone crossing the finish line, scoring a goal or a surprise party. Opening and closing the battery compartment is a frustrating endeavor but it does keep the kids out of it. You have to tilt the face of the webcam down to slide off the cover and getting it back on is just as frustrating as it is to get it off but I’d rather fight with it than have it easily accessible to smaller kids that seem perpetually fascinated with batteries.

The size of the webcam / digital camera combo is nice, about five inches by two and a half inches and a about an inch and a half thick. This makes it a truly portable type of product that’s lightweight as well, even with the batteries in. Having the snap button on the top is a nice touch but does make it a little hard to use when it’s hooked up the computer and the lens portion is adjusted or tilted. Since this comes with no fastening bracket you could easily bump the cam out of place and ruin the shot. You get a nice long cord with this – sic foot to be exact. This is great for those who have their computer on the floor or in a place that isn’t easily assessable – just plug the jack into the USB port to use it and then unplug the cam from the cord when you want to use it outside the house. Remember, there’s no flash on this so if you are purchasing this to take photos for eBay or any other auction site, you will need to make sure that you have proper lighting or your photos will come out gray, colorless or even worse – looking like something that you’d get from an old 110 film camera.

Webcam

One of the nicest things about this is that it has an adjustable face to it, simply put, you can adjust the angle of the cam without having to move the whole thing, this only works for up and down action so you will need to adjust it left to right. The software that comes with it is pretty confusing if you are a newbie to the game – too many different programs to choose from and if you click on the wrong one, your cam won’t work the way you want it to. The webcam connects to the back of the computer via a USB cord – a perk here is that the supplied cord is pretty long so no matter what you are trying to capture, chances are you will be able to. It’s a hit or miss operation hooking this thing up and getting it to work correctly – there are too many things that can go wrong and unless you are prepared to go through a trial and error process to work out the kinks, chances are you’ll wad it up in a ball and throw it in the corner.

This goes double for unhooking it, I’ve had the entire computer die on my forcing a reboot when I unplugged it when I was done using it – other times all I had to do was slide out the USB jack and everything was fine. Again, this is where the whole trial and error process comes in to play. Without trying things different ways each time and keeping track of them [what programs you are running, if you turn the cam off, what other items are plugged in etc] – you are playing the numbers game. And lets face it, when you are delving into cyberspace with a webcam, the last thing you want are system errors, cams that freeze and frustration. In most cases the requires a restart of the cam but there are some instances where you will need to reboot your computer to get the cam to resynch and pick up the feed for broadcast. This adds to the frustration that goes along with adding new software to your computer and from the cams that I have tried, this is definitely one of the most frustrating to work with.

You will laugh yourself silly when you see the “live stream” projection from the webcam, not that it’s that bad but it’s extremely choppy. 30 frames per second might sound like you are going to get a nice clear picture but the truth of the matter is this – there is a definite delay as to what you see on the screen and what the cam is actually focused on. A few seconds might not sound like a lot but it is rather distracting when you are trying to adjust the cam a certain way and you see the perfect position on the screen only to see it vanish because the image is a few seconds old. This is a huge waste of time in my opinion because you have to sit there and move it slowly until you get it to the spot you want it to be in.

Pros & Cons

The biggest con to the camera side of this is that there is no flash so you have to use this in a well-lit area indoors or in moderately sunny weather outside. You won’t really know if you are going to get a good shot or not until you plug the provided cord into the back of the computer and upload them from the memory to the photo album. I didn’t really think about this aspect of it when I purchased this – I mean, you’d think that it would take a great picture regardless, once again I read a little too much into the term “digital camera”. Depending on the speed of your computer, uploading the photos from the camera to it can be a pretty quick proves or something that has the same time frame as syrup dripping from a tree in the middle of winter. You have to first dock the camera to the computer with the USB cord then open the software application to view them [Video Blaster WebCam then WebCam Go Control]. The it has to extract the images from the camera – but that in itself is a laborious process since you can’t do a mass purge, each photo has to be moved to the photo album or deleted one by one which can lead to a real shop of horrors if you have other photos stored on the camera. The photos are stored by number, so if you delete several new photo images are slapped in the empty spots – that should give you an indication right there that it’s not as simple as it is made out to be to organize and arrange the photos.

The cam doesn’t come with any type of mounting software either – so if you are looking to place it on top of your monitor or CPU, you’ll have to get creative. My suggestion would be Velcro but lets face it, it’s not the least bit attractive to see this big piece on something so if you plan on taking it out of the house to take pictures, you’ll have to come up with your own plan. The length of the cord again comes into play when using this as a webcam – a good and bad point – its long enough that you have a lot of freedom of where to place the webcam but if there is a lot of slack you could easily bump it with your foot or knock it out of place if you move another cord. This has happened a few times and is really a bother when you are in the middle of a “conversation” but on the lighter side, when this happens it is pretty comical to see people scramble to get the cam back into the proper position. And some of the things that people have “off cam” … truly interesting.

The Bottom Line

This is an average digital camera and an average webcam – I am not going to lie, stretch the truth or exaggerate. It’s been dropped, kicked, left in the summer heat in my SUV and has yet to stop working. The battery life isn’t great especially for those who turn it off and on a lot but if that is a minor inconvenience to you, then by all means overlook. You get getting the combo package in a small sized unit with an adjustable webcam face and these days this sells for about half what I paid for it.


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2004 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes