Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

This is the third Creative Labs webcam I have bought. Compared to the previous ones (a first generation webcam and a more recent Pro eX), this one produces better pictures - brighter and better color rendering. It works well in low light environment. So as far as performance is concerned, I am pretty happy. However, if you're looking for a webcam that can be SECURELY mounted on your laptop, this one is definitely not for you. This webcam does NOT have a clip or a snap-on mechanism. It does allow you to put the webcam on laptop computer's display panel without falling off if the computer is on a leveled surface without any kind of movement. Even that is little bit shaky if the dispaly panel is thin (like my Dell Inspiron 700m). I give this webcam a 4 star instead of 5 mainly for this reason.

A note about installation (Windows XP with SP2):

This is not a big deal but I thought I would just share with everyone in case someone gets confused. Like other Creaive Labs stuff I have bought before (webcams and MP3 player), the installation procedure in the manual doesn't quite match what you actually experience. The manual indicates after you finish installing the software (drivers and apps), then you plug in the webcam and Windows will discover the hardware and you go from there. In reality,you will be asked to plug in the webcam before you finish the software installation and you never go through the Windows hardware discovery process.

Please note that I bought this webcam (Creative Labs Webcam Live!) a month ago from the local store of a national office supplies chain for . You shouldn't be paying more than or so because this is an old model and has been discontinued by Creative Labs. The follow-up models (like the "ultra" model) are barely better than than one (despite Creative's deceptive claims) and definitely not worth shelling out more than for.

This is a basic webcam. It does not have auto focus; nor is it focus-free. This means you should adjust the manual focus ring on the cam to make sure your subject is in focus. The focus range is rather small, but since you probably just sit there when it's working, it doesn't matter much. It does matter, however, if you want to use it as a motion detector, since it might be capturing videos of a thief in your home or cubicle out of focus, defeating its usefulness.

The included Creative WebCam Center application is very bloated at something like 50MB on installation, plus it installs no fewer than eight start-up services (without telling you). It includes video recording, motion detection, time-lapse video, and webcam. You can choose to compress the video capture; uncompressed video (the default setting) takes up 1MB per second! That's 60MB for every minute of video, or 3.5GB for a whole hour! But the video compression in Creative WebCam Center is very inefficient. Anything less than a Pentium 4 will slow your machine down to a crawl.

My biggest beef with the software Creative throws in our face is it contains too many hidden components with uncipherable names. It also installs tons of "get AOL for free" links and icons everywhere on your hard drive. Creative Labs has no shame whatsoever. I never asked for AOL, nor will I ever use AOL, an evil company that overbills its customers and provides the worst service possible (even Verizon is better as an ISP). I really don't like installating a 50MB application with tons of hidden components just to use the webcam. (Unfortunately, it's the same for Logitech, the biggest name in webcams.)

The cam does work very well with MSN Messenger, the best video conferencing software now available (and it's free). It also clips securely on my LCD monitor. But I really hate the spyware-like behavior of the Creative software suite.

In summary: consider Logitech, because they don't install tons of annoying "get AOL!!!" links on your PC. If you have to buy this, make sure you don't pay more than .

I have been looking for such a webcam for a long time because I can't find a cheap product with good quality and brand.

This webcam is what I wanted although it is USB 1.1, but it doesn't influnce the speed even when I used it to talk with my friend in China. Furthermore,I get my order in only 2 days with free shipping. Easy to install and use. And I love Creative very much because it's rebate probably working. @^:^@

The only weak point of this webcam is when I set up the "banding filter" at "outdoor" model, the webcam seems to be a little dark although in this setting will make the motion without delay. So, I give it 4 stars. Hope it can help!