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Be sure to also read Common issues with Creative cameras.
Please read the page About My Lighting to understand the tests.
Well it's taken me long enough to get around to this camera. Two days ago I ran this camera through my image tests. When I sat down to write this review I found that I had already shot the demo images back in March and had forgotten about them. I have replaced the no lights test image with the newer one for this final posting, the other images are from the earlier test.
One peculiar item I encountered while doing this recent set of tests was the image size. For some reason, which I was not able to determine, no matter what size image I specify in the camera controls of my software, the camera insisted on putting out a 640x480 image. Try as I might, it just wouldn't go down to my standard 320x240 test image size. This explains why the date stamp overlay on the no-light test appears to be shrunk. The only place I can find any image size adjustment is within my current software, as the camera console, which accompanies the driver, has no image size options.
This camera appears to be a simple re-release of the earlier model of the same design. I originally thought this camera had been updated to USB 2 circuitry, however, looking closer at the package I see it is labeled as "Compatible with the USB 2.0 Specification". Looking closer at the image, it does not seem to have the refresh rate of the newer USB 2 cameras.
In the original tests back in March, the camera appeared to do a bit better job of imaging than the earlier camera. However in the tests of the other day, I have found my camera has changed considerably in the last six months. It appears that a film or hazy coating must have gotten either on the lens or inside the camera. The flair has become very much worse. I tried cleaning the outside of the lens with little improvement.
The auto exposure control seems to work ok for a while, but if the camera is left on over night or for extended time periods, it can't seem to recover as the sun comes up. I have to go into the controls and reset them to get back to a reasonable exposure.
The camera could not handle the bright daylight as well as the earlier one, however the new release did better in the very low light test.
This camera has a dark gray body as opposed to the earlier model with a light silver case. Other than the color difference the camera bodies are identical.
A disappointing camera, with very little improvement, that I can see, from the earlier model except a drop in price.
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