Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I was hesitant to buy the Genius F100 since there are very few customer reviews anywhere. I generally don’t buy things unless I can read through customer feedback to get a good feeling for the item. I finally bought the F100 anyway since I really wanted a wide-angle webcam for conference calls and simply couldn’t find any other options.

And I couldn’t be happier! I have only had the F100 for 2 days, but it worked perfectly with Skype conference calls on my Windows 7 machine. I didn’t have to install any special drivers, just plugged in the USB cable. Skype works with the F100 just marvelously.

The best thing is that the field of view is really extraordinary! The entire conference room in our office can now be seen. Before this we always had half the people in the meetings out of frame. The microphone quality is also excellent. It even seems to be better than on the Microsoft Lifecam we were previously using.

The only downside I can see so far is that the F100 might not be the best choice for a single 1 on 1 video call. It gives the impression that you are far away and there is no good close-up of your face. It would be nice to able to specify a portion of the frame to zoom in on if you don’t want the entire picture.

We used to use Logitech C920 webcams in our conference rooms, but then I switched them out for the Genius Widecam instead. Now everyone sitting round the conference room table can be seen. It really makes a huge difference having the 120 degree field of view. I would pay twice the price for it, but at only this is a steal!

I have a computer connected to my TV in the living room so that we can Skype (video chat) with family. With the distance between my house and that of family, video chatting is how they get to see my toddler grow. Of course getting a toddler to sit still for video calls is next to impossible. That is where this camera comes in. The webcam we used before had a standard angle and it showed a little more than our couch across the room and little of the floor space between the couch and TV. This camera with the 120 degree viewing angle shows almost my entire living room. It is amazing just how much can be seen. Now family can see our toddler anywhere she decides to play in the living room. I highly recommend this camera for anyone looking to use a computer with their living room TV for video chatting.

Side note: I use this with Linux and it works out of the box no configuration needed or software to load.