Creative Labs WebCam Instant | 
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| Brand: Creative Labs
Category: CE
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $17.98
You Save: $22.01 (55%)
Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 9469
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP
Native Resolution: 640x480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 8.2 x 4.1
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: 73VF004000000
Model: 73VF004000000
UPC: 054651073746
EAN: 0054651073746
ASIN: B0002P4VHG
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: brand new - shipping out of Los Angeles CA
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| Features:
| • | 352 x 288 (CIF) CMOS sensor | | • | Video and still image capture at up to 640 x 480 (software enhanced) | | • | USB 1.1 connection | | • | Flexible three-way base sits on flat surfaces and attaches to a flat panel or notebook displays | | • | Works with Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, and other instant messenger services |
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Product Description
Includes: Creative WebCam Center, ArcSoft PhotoImpression 4, ArcSoft MultiMedia E-mail, & 6 ft. USB 1.1 cable. Creative Labs WebCam Instant - This webcam makes it easy and affordable to add video to online chats and instant messaging. It features a CIF CMOS sensor that is capable of a 352x288 video resolution. And through software enhancement, it can take snapshots at VGA (640x480) resolution. Taking snapshots are easy, just click the handy snapshot button on the tip of the WebCam. Adjustable Focus Ring 24-Bit True Color Auto Exposure / White Balance / Color Control Aperture F2.6 +/-5% Connects to a PC via USB
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 truly value for money. September 30, 2007
Nagaraj Balasubramanian (Virginia,USA)
Has worked well. simple...effective and great value for the money. Got another one for my sis as well. She has had no complaints as well.
 Good buy! July 31, 2007
P. Bangera (Jersey City NJ)
Used this product for the past 2 years without any issues. I got it for $25 then. Its no good for desktop PCs, but a great buy for laptops. The video quality is very decent.
 Sufficient July 15, 2007
Pecos Bill (Gaithersburg, MD United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a cheap, no frills webcam. I bought it specifically because it WAS so cheap and because I wanted a simple webcam to put on my desk at work to act as a spy to see who was going around stealing things off people's desks after hours and I wanted it to be cheap in case what they stole next was my camera.
I think its mere presense did the job of deterrent. It did catch some people eyeballing it suspiciously before wandering off, but neither it nor anything from my desk ever disappeared again.
That said, here's my breakdown:
Included software: Very good. Comes with software "motion detection" which is what I use to record movement around my desk, but also has time lapse and photo modes in addition to actually just being a webcam. There's also some way of setting up the camera to monitor it remotely but the firewall at the office was blocking that function so I haven't tried it.
Camera quality: "Sufficient". Not great. The camera seems to have minor "fits" that will throw glitches on screen once in a great while. This isn't really noticable until you use motion detection. The motion detection function would frequently capture an image of a blank wall doing nothing very exciting and it took me a while to realize that what sets off the motion detection is sometimes just "noise" which I presume to be a result of a poor quality camera. Like it gets a moment of static which trips the motion detection software and it ends up recording a short stint of absolutely nothing happening. (Edit: I was able to greatly reduce the incidence of this by turning off the automatic light settings. Turns out, at some point the software decides that the lighting is too light or too dark and makes an adjustment, which cause enough of a picture change to trigger the motion detector... setting it to manual removed about 75% of the "noise" hits I was getting.)
It would also be nice if the motion capture had a small 1 or 2 second buffer so that it will always record the event that tripped it. As it is, sometimes it will also trigger from something going by fast enough that the software gets tripped but doesn't start recording fast enough to catch what tripped it.
The camera's max resolution is pretty low, as well, though I guess that's about on par for web cams. On the bright side, you can record quite a lot of time without taking up a lot of drive space but on the other hand, it's going to be low quality stuff.
Still, not bad for the price. I'm happy enough with it. The plastic stand is nice, too, giving you a decent chance of finding a place to set it or hook it (the bottom "leg" you see in the picture can swing out to act as a claw if need be, e.g., to place on top of a monitor or cubical wall...)
I might even be tempted to call it "5 stars, relative to other cameras you could get for this cheap" but I'll leave it at 4 stars, mainly for those glitches that interfere with motion capture.
You can certainly find a better web cam out there, but if you're looking for something cheap and sufficient, this one will probably do the job.
 DON'T BUY IT! February 21, 2007
Cynthia B. Astle (Dallas, TX United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a piece of junk, especially the software. It hung up twice on trying to install the software, and the video portion got hung up so badly I finally had to simply shut down my computer to turn it loose. I sent it back pronto!
Good webcam, poor software January 11, 2007
J. Hardy (San Francisco, CA USA)
This webcam is good for anyone who wants to skype or IM with video. The resolution is okay and the webcam works pretty well even in poor lighting. The only downside to this product is the software that comes with it. I couldn't get the software to run on my computer even when plugged into the USB 2.0 ports at the back. The software looks nifty but is slow.
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