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Purchased January 4, 2009 $39.99
I had a number of problems with this camera when I first installed it. I suspect some of the dificulty was due to driver conflicts with other cameras. When first turned on my image was upside down and flipped. I had to use my camera capture program to get it right. Then, after unpluging several other cameras the image righted itself and flipped correctly. It wasn't until after I had grabbed all my test shots and put my equipment away I relized some of the captures were still flipped, so you may notice the lamp behind me is on the wrong side of some of the sample images.
This camera clams to have a 1280x1024 image sensor but my largest shot has the distinct appearance of an interpellated image, so I can't state for a fact what the actual size is. The poor quality of the large image could also be the cheap lens.
I like the shape of the camera but that's a personal preference. The base being compact and round.
The camera gave a reasonable image in bright light but was sorely lacking in sensitivity, color and sharpness in room lighting tests and completely useless in my monitor simulation test.
The positive side is the stand is well designed. It sits nicely on a flat panel, and will sit on a notebook screen but is just a bit unstable unless your screen is square edged. On a rounded edge notebook it may fall off.
The camera swivels 360 degrees and tilts about 60 degrees so is easy to point.
The focus ring is easy to turn but tended to slip just a bit when I let go.
If you see this camera on sale for around $30 then it might be worth that but I would go elsewhere if you plan on using it in the evening.
 | Sample images showing how this camera performs under different lighting conditions |
Large images
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