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Purchased December 17, 2008, $59.99
Check the about my lighting page to understand the tests.
There are 2 cameras that look almost the same. The 2mp Premium Auto focus (2008) is the one with the silver top. The 1.3mp HP Deluxe (2008) has a black top.
Nice camera if used in bright light. In the night shots the image degraded pertly badly and became very grainy. I found it has a fair amount of lens flair if you have a bright light behind you. However with decent, bright lighting, it performs well and is sharp.
As I mentioned with the HP Elite Auto focus, the small c-shaped notebook mounting bracket doesn't work. The camera will fall off the monitor, so plan on using the clamp version.
As with many of the auto focus cameras, this one has some trouble deciding on where to focus. After awhile though, it seems to stabilize and, unless something major changes in the image, like you leaving and coming back, the auto focus performs as it should. Make sure you keep back lights to a minimum.
Sadly, I found the cheeper lower resolution HP Deluxe seems to have a sharper image, although my test examples are a bit dark. While I was doing my testing of these 2 cameras. I was having trouble adjusting the brightness and other settings. Each time I closed the UVC control panel, the changes were candled and set back to default. It was only after I had finished the demo shots and put everything away that I discovered the problem was being caused by the control panel that was installed with the camera drivers. The camera panel was resetting any changes even though the camera control wasn't open. I guess this continues the problems with HP software I have encountered with almost all HP products. If you are going to use a 3rd party software program like I do, I would recommend that you just use the UVC drivers built into your operating system and not install the software that comes with the camera.
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