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iHome Webcam iH-W304DRThis camera appears to have been created by Vimicro, at least that is what the driver said as it was being installed. After instillation the audio component reads as a Saturn USB device, I've never seen that one before. I also find it odd at this point in the market, that a VGA camera can sell for $40 or more. I also had difficulty with the drivers between this camera and the iHome Notebook camera. Apparently the two are not compatible and I found I had to reinstall the drivers for each camera to switch between them. It was impossible to run both on the same computer at the same time. Plugging the wrong one in for whichever driver was present, caused my TinCam software to crash when it tried to start.
For the price, I am disappointed in this camera. The image is somewhat fuzzy and the camera had trouble with just about all my lighting conditions. The image was dark in the night tests and washed out in the daylight tests
I like the mount, it works well on a desktop or on a flat panel or notebook. Allows you to tilt, swivel, and angle the camera sideways to point just about any direction. I also found I could pull the base off the camera with a snap. You could conceivably rig some screw type mount and fasten it permanently to a ledge or angle bracket.
The front of the box leads one to believe this is a 1.3 mega pixel camera but the specs on the back show it to have a VGA (640x480) sensor, a bit unusual for a new camera release.
My favorite part of this camera is its black, satin case with the red highlight around the lens. It is apparently also available with other colors on the highlight. I just happen to like black and red.
 | Sample images showing how this camera performs under different lighting conditions |
Large image taken under bright light. 640x480
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