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July 1, 2002
Webcams
By Cade
Metz
Give your PC the gift of sight.
If you've used the Internet in the past year, you've
undoubtedly seen the pop-up ads touting the $79.99 wireless
video camera from X10. Yes, the ads are annoying, but don't they
spark your curiosity? Are PC video cameras really that cheap? If
so, how well do they work? And how useful are they at keeping
track of a child at home alone or videoconferencing with a
friend or colleague?
Today's PC video cameras are indeed inexpensive. In fact,
several sell for less than $100, and Labtec charges a mere
$29.95 for its WebCam. But not all of these inexpensive cameras
are as effective as you'd like them to be. Take some time to
weigh their pros and cons before that ad in your browser or
cardboard display in your local retail store persuades you to
buy one.
EDITORS' CHOICE
Webcams
July 1, 2002
Creative Labs PC-Cam 300
If you just want to watch the area around a PC, occasionally
check in on a user, or take a snapshot of the person performing
a given action, the inexpensive Creative Labs PC-Cam 300 is our
Webcam of choice.
Creative
Labs PC-Cam 300
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- Product: Creative Labs PC-Cam 300
- Price: $99.99 direct
- Company Info: Creative Labs Inc.
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| If you're looking to
spend about $100 for a video camera, try the versatile
Creative Labs PC-Cam 300 ($99.99 direct). The PC-Cam
provides good image quality, ships with its own
surveillance software, and even doubles as a handheld
camera, taking still pictures or recording short videos.
In fact, at first glance, the PC-Cam looks like a standard
digital camera. It's convenient to carry, but as a
handheld, it can capture only 75 seconds of low-quality
video, and stills are limited to 640-by-480 resolution.
The PC-Cam comes into its own when used with a PC; it
nestles into an included docking station that plugs into a
PC via USB. When attached to your machine, the PC-Cam
captures as much video as your hard drive can hold—as
high as 640-by-480 resolution at 16-bit color—and takes
snapshots at 1,024-by-768 resolution (interpolated).
The PC-Cam didn't perform as well as the Logitech
QuickCam Pro 3000, but it came extremely close. On our
abysmal-lighting test, in a darkened room where the lux
reading (a measure of light quantity) was only 4.095,
these were the only cameras to capture a discernable video
image of an object 4 feet away.
Using the included software, you can organize videos
and pictures into a digital album and easily print or
e-mail them. If surveillance is your game, Creative Labs
includes its Video Blaster WebCam Monitor software, an
easy way to keep tabs on remote locations. You can
configure the app to send images to your e-mail account or
Web site periodically, but it's also clever enough to send
images only when it detects motion. The company also
includes Microsoft NetMeeting for videoconferencing and
Ulead Photo Express for image editing. The PC-Cam is the
best all-around camera in our review.
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Labtec
WebCam
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- Product: Labtec WebCam
- Price: $29.99 direct
- Company Info: Labtec
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| Labtec, a subsidiary of
Logitech, offers one of the cheapest PC video cameras on
the market: the Labtec WebCam ($29.99 direct). And you get
what you pay for. Attaching to your PC via USB, the WebCam
captures both videos and still images, neither of the
highest quality; the camera's resolution tops out at only
352-by-288. The WebCam received only a fair rating on our
good-lighting test, and failed the abysmal-lighting test.
Also, you must purchase separate software to use the
WebCam for surveillance. The only included software is a
simple application for capturing, printing, and e-mailing
images. |
Logitech
QuickCam Pro 3000
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- Product: Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000
- Price: $99.95 direct
- Company Info: Logitech Inc.
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| The Logitech QuickCam
Pro 3000 ($99.95 direct) gives you bang for your buck.
Like the Creative Labs PC-Cam 300, it ships with several
effective software tools, including a surveillance
application. It has slightly higher image quality than the
PC-Cam and showed particularly impressive results on our
abysmal-lighting test. The QuickCam looks like a large
plastic eyeball and connects to your computer via USB. You
can use the QuickCam to capture video and still images.
Aside from image quality, the QuickCam's chief strength is
that its many software tools are combined into one
interface. From one window, you can create picture
galleries and e-mail images, regularly post images,
broadcast live video to the Web, and monitor for movement.
Logitech's surveillance software isn't as adept as
Creative Labs', however. It can set off a sound alarm when
it detects motion, but it can't automatically send images
to an e-mail account or Web site on alert. It does,
however, let you schedule the motion detector to turn on
at particular times throughout the day. |
X10 XCam2
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- Product: X10 XCam2
- Price: $79.99 direct
- Company Info: X10, www.x10.com
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| What about X10's
heavily advertised camera? First, the X10 XCam2 isn't
always sold for its advertised price ($79.99 direct). If
you want to use it with your PC instead of your
television, you'll need the $50 USB Video Capture Adapter,
which plugs into your PC. The XCam2 can transmit images to
the adapter from up to 100 feet away. You still may feel
that you got a bargain on a wireless Webcam—until you
see its video output. The XCam2's image quality is grainy
and unusually dark. Like the Labtec WebCam, it received
only a fair rating on our good-lighting test and failed to
capture a discernable image on our abysmal-lighting test.
The included surveillance software is on a par with
Creative Labs' offering. |
Scorecard:
Webcams
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| In testing these
Webcams, we look at focus, dynamic range, color accuracy,
and noise. The abysmal-lighting test mimics
nighttime lighting, determining how well each PC camera
can detect an intruder in near-dark conditions.
We use a pass/fail rating for this test because image
quality will be poor regardless of the camera used.
Cameras that display any image—as opposed to just black
screen—receive a passing grade. We expect decent image
quality, however, on the good-lighting test, which
mimics ordinary indoor conditions, so we rate the products
from poor to excellent. Surveillance rates the
camera's utility for security purposes. We look for
included motion-detection software and the ability to
e-mail pictures or post them to a Web site automatically.
For our versatility rating, we prefer cameras with
multiple functions and wireless devices. For more
information about our testing, visit us online.
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