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Purchased December 17, 2008 $79.99 (retail price $99.99)
I've finally found an HP camera I can recommend. This one works and quite well except for one point discussed below.
This is a UVC (Universal Video Class) camera. It works without having to install the software that comes with the camera. Because of all the trouble I had with the other HP cameras, I'm not going to install this software on my big computer.
However I did install the included driver software on my test machine, after which I couldn't get the other camera (In-Site Motion) connected to this computer to deliver a picture. The computer still sees the In-Site but no image. Each time my webcam software starts, the HP button software crashes, producing a windows error report. After terminating the button software I can then see the image from both cameras, but my webcam program is unable to upload images. I should mention that I did not install the entire software package, only what was included in the driver folder of the instillation CD. The only thing the software for the HP seems to do is to enable the buttons on the top of the camera. I believe I am going to have to rebuild this computer before I can use it for any further webcam tests.
The camera performs very well, excellent images, very high resolution and the auto focus seems to work well. Good color balance and exposure in auto mode. I like the images and find them not too far behind the quality of the higher end Logitech cameras.
Now for the drawback. The mounting stand has a serious problem. The stand will sit on your desktop or sit on top of a flat panel monitor, but the most critical hinge, the one that actually connects the camera head to the stand, is so loose that the camera won't stay pointed where you want it. It either slowly tilts down toward the floor or, if the camera cable has any pull at all from the back as in the weight of the cable, the camera will swing upward and point at the ceiling. I ended up holding the cable down with some masking tape to keep it pointed at me.
The mount does allow the camera to be pointed up or down and, unlike many of the other cameras currently available, you can swivel it side to side over about a 90 degree swing. The stand is well designed, but suffers from some manufacturing quality control issues.
The camera also comes with what is supposed to be a notebook mounting clip. You can snap off the desk mount and snap in the notebook clip. But, the little clip, at least for this camera, is a joke. It won't hold the camera at all. The camera either slips totally off the front or off the back of any notebook I tried it on.
This camera is fairly expensive but, as of this writing, there seem to be a lot of rebates available, including directly from HP's website, making the current price $69.00.
Overall, a good buy and an excellent camera if you discount the mounting problem my camera had. Hopefully, if you get this camera, your's wom't want to look at the floor. And I can't recommend installing the software.
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