Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I had expected the Eyeball 2.0 to be as good or better on the MacPro than the iSight camera and mike on the MacBook Pro. I was very disappointed. The Eyeball 2.0 is a lackluster video performer. The frame rate is so slow, despite lots of light, and low CPU usage. The lack of a driver means the resolution and frame rate can’t be adjusted, and Skype software has no control over them either. It’s all plug-and-play and over what you get you have no choices.

Blue touts that its camera can do up to 30 fps, but throws in the caveat that it’s “system dependent.” So unless the software that uses the camera can make adjustments to resolution, frame rate, and other parameters, you are stuck on Skype with a high resolution camera that has a good picture as long as nothing moves in the frame. Throw in moving lips and hands, and you’ve descended into the past standard of webcams. Blue doesn’t tell you things like this in its advertising.

When I connected to the Blue Eyeball 2.0 site to upgrade free to the “High Gain Software,” I could not download the upgrade. So I don’t know if I have the “High Gain Software” or not.

While I would have liked to have used the Blue Eyeball 2.0 on my MacPro, the webcam was instead donated to a charity. The built-in iSight camera and mike in my MacBook Pro, although it has no controls over resolution and format and other webcam parameters, is a superior product. Its performance with Skype is very good, and the MacBook Pro has nowhere near the powers of the MacPro.

I have come to believe that USB plugin webcams are mostly a technology that has not yet matured — despite years of production. Skype has a partnership with Logitech, a maker of webcams, so their recommendations on webcams are suspect — they are all made by Logitech. I don’t buy in to the hoopla about bandwidth and CPU hampering webcams with today’s uploading and downloading video in high definition — which I routinely do.

My only advice is to research your product carefully. Another type of plug-in connection besides USB might be worthy, but without software controls over the camera and the program the camera uses, you may still not like what you purchased.

Bottom-line: Avoid the Blue Eyeball 2.0 unless you know precisely what you are buying, and know the limitations of the platform you will use the Eyeball 2.0 on. An Internet search finds no report of a platform that utilizes the full 30 fps rate that Blue advertises.

Customer Video Review Length:: 4:04 Mins

Watch the video for more detail.

Pros: Great sound, good video, tough design, nice retro-ish look. Great customer support from Blue Mic Co. Finally Got a good unit.

Cons: Short USB, received multiple defective units.

Other Thoughts: MAKE SURE you are using USB 2.0, not any lower. If you do use something lower than 2.0 the quality is HORRIFICALLY bad.

The product meets my needs. I’m much more concerned about the microphone than the camera. I generally engage in voice calls to my contact overseas. I have made video calls to others and it works, but there are more flexible cameras out there.