Webcam Reviews

The battery life is more like 6-7 hours rather than the 11 hours advertised however, this is not my biggest problem with the JB3. I too was cheated by Creative of my $50 rebate. For this reason, I will never purchase from them again. The Jukebox 3 is adequate, however, as pointed out, tracks on the Jukebox cannot be transferred to a hard drive or another player. This is a major shortcoming, in my opinion. Mainly, I think that Creative has sowed an awfully bad crop by cheating so many customers of their rightful and promised rebates.

I like the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3. I think it's a great value for what you get; sounds great, and has many options and features. However, my experience with their battery life is somewhere around 6 hours per charge, not 11. I can't imagine where they got that number; unless one of them ONCE on a rainy day in May did that so they claim it for all. Average in the real world is about 6 hrs by my experience, of course "your mileage may vary."

Although some of the reviews are not great. I'm here to set the record straight. This thing is awesome. I paid $399 for my jukebox 3 from jukeboxaccessories.com. I received it in about 8 days from the date of purchase. Not great, but hey, I'm not complaining after some of the horror stories I've read. As for the battery life, 11 hours is about right only if you're not playing it for 11 hours straight. 2-3 hours at a time for a couple of days without charging is what I got for the first few months. I decided to buy the extra battery (also purchased from jukeboxaccessories.com) since they were the only store selling it at a reasonable price at the time. Now, I travel back and forth from home to school to work and back home and enjoy several hours of play time without charging the batteries.

The very first problem with this cam is that the drivers are not XP tested. You will get a warning when installing. In fact, the drivers cause my PC to crash frequently....and upon rebooting the cam is always recognized as new hardware and XP wants to re-install it and a mystery audio device. I got tired of rebooting and removed the offending hardware & software....but still get nag panels to register the product. Their website offered no update or workaround for XP customers.

Okay. Here's the most important part-- IT WORKS. that might sound simplistic, but I tried Orange Micro iBot2 (USB 2.0) and it sort of worked. And I have a Logitec Click Smart 310...it works but is USB 1.1 and is choppy.
This Pyro one was easier to install than the instructions suggested.
It worked first time out and keeps working. I've tried Yahoo! Messenger WebCam (hint: it didn't work at first until I switched to large view in camera or supercam preferences). I also use EyeBall Patio and it works great. AMCAP that came with it helps.
The color/brightness controls are a bit awkward, but it doesn't need too much fiddling.
I am running a Sony Vaio laptop, and the firewire(iLink) port is 4-pin, so I had to buy a powered hub, but it was great.
Yeah, the orange micro only sort of worked(I returned it)and their tech support was friendly, answered the phone right away, but ultimately was useless. The drivers for the orange camera kept disappearing, and they helped me with that, but they told me that they couldn't guarantee performance unless I used their PCMCIA USB 2.0 card. ( I tried Micro Innovations, Star Tech and Apricorn Cardbusses and got no results from the camera).
SO>>> this one worked. right away, it is fast and I wish I bought it first. I'm told that USB 2.0 compresses video and FireWire doesn't...and that supposedly help...I believe it.
Try this camera. I hope this review helps.

I looked around for the fastest best webcam I could find. I took a chance on the Pyro Webcam instead of the much hyped iSight cam put out by Apple. I had looked at the images of iSight users and found many have a washed out green to them and the camera is over priced and over hyped. I use a mac running Panther and and the Pyro webcam runs great with it. DO recommend users use the Manual settings on video chat to increase speed and fine tune it. Takes a little playing around with but is worth it. I use the ADS Pyro with iVisit video chat and it is GREAT! The pay version of ivisit has High Resolution video and the ADS Pyro webcam adjusted right on high resolution ivisit video chat is like LIVE video. The image is fast and clear most of the time. ONLY problem One might have with it is the tripod - ADS needs to make something more stable less tipsy. But the Positive on the tripod is that it IS adjustable unlike many other webcams. If you want a good fast clear webcam for videochat I highly recommend this camera. And no neither ADS nor iVisit gave me a discount for this review! ;-)

Very disappointed with this - very fuzzy, distorted sound. I'll do some more research and check if its just not compatible with my car stereo, but as it stands, it'll never be going back into my car

I was almost turned away when I read the first review, but after reading the second one, I decided to go for it. When I first got it, I admit it did sound fuzzy, distorted. But I changed the EAX setting on my Jukebox from the Custom EQ setting I like for my headphones, to the Environment/Auditorium setting and it sounds great. I have over 2000 songs in my Nomad Jukebox 3, and it's like having my entire CD catalog in my car. I guess it helps to play with these things before you go running for the Return slip.

Using the standard cassette player on a 1996 Cavalier...

Plugging the cassette into the LINE OUT jack of the Jukebox causes very DISTORTED audio.
Plugging the cassette into the HEADPHONE jack of the Jukebox produces GOOD audio.

You get what you pay for. This camera is a few things, but what it is NOT is a standalone digital camera. If you are looking for a digital camera, look elsewhere. When used as a standalone digital camera, it will take about 10 pictures (about 5 with flash on) and then the batteries go dead.

It works decently as a webcam though - the saving grace is the bundled software which lets you do neat stuff like motion detection, etc. But all in all, not worth the megabucks for just a glorified webcam.

I've had the Clicksmart 510 for about a year now.
My main use for this camera is mostly as a webcam.
The quality is really good if used as a webcam.
If using it as a digital camera, the quality is horrible. Using excessive light might do it some justice. Batteries last a long time with this camera as well.

I've been playing around with this camera for about a month now and my experience has been very good.

First, the cons:

The installation was a hassle for me because, for some reason, the software CD that comes with it didn't download. This problem was fixed by just going to Logitech's main site and downloading it from there. I have Windows XP Home Ed.

Pictures aren't always centered (within crop marks), especially upclose. I've tried to take a very upclose picture of a rose and ended up with the side petals and stem. The camera was held VERY still and for about 10 seconds to make sure it came out right. Never did. Not-so-upclose pictures are no problem.

The cover to the batteries compartment seems very flimsy, since it's plastic and already showing some slight wear around the edges.

Putting batteries in, because the signs are on the cover/latch and you gotta be somewhat coordinated.

Flash is VERY overexposed. Not reasonable to use even in dimest of conditions, because it washes everything out. It works better without flash. If you ABSOLUTELY need to use flash, use the automatic flash.

The webcam needs plenty of light to show proper color.

The waiting time while taking Flash pictures. It lasts about 10 seconds,varies, and makes taking spontaneous pictures impossible.

THE PROs:

Picture quality is superb for the amount of money I paided.

I don't know why so many people complain about batteries but I'm still using the ones I recieved with the camera! I try to conserve them by putting them in ONLY when I need to take pictures and taking them out when I'm done. I've already taken 100+ pictures. This camera saves the pictures without the need for batteries to be in use.

I've thrown this in my bookbag, with about 20 pounds worth of stuff and it's survived without a scratch!

It's just fun! The software includes a "survelliance feature" that turns the camera on when it detects motion. I'm thinking of trying it out one day on my brothers.

With all that being said, I would recommend this camera to anyone that just wants to have fun with photography and get beautiful results!

Very blurry picture, am going to return camera(x-mas) gift and try another brand.

Intel Easy PC Camera - Purchased at Circuit City. Good Camera for the money. Easy set-up under XP, just plugged it in. Nice.

hey , adjust the focus by revolving the mirror on the front side, it gets sharp then, its not blurry at all !!

I just recently purchased a Logitech QuickCam Express. I've had experience around computers, but the webcam was simple to install. I just plugged it in and the software took care of the rest. Within minutes I could broadcast over the internet. The camera is easy to use, but on the other hand it is quite fuzzy, even when it's been focused. It's a great camera for the money and I highly recommend it. But if you would like perfectly clear pictures you might want to go with a little higher model, such as the Quick Cam Web.

The Logitech Quickcam is a more than adequate digital camera. It's a USB device and can be set up in minutes with the very good software than accompanies it. I use it with Microsoft NetMeeting quite a bit and it's very good. Beware though, you will need to be in a very well lit room to get the best pictures - a slightly dark room will lead to what some people call "digitalized" or "pixilized" images. If you have this problem, you may need to keep an extra lamp beside your PC. With NetMeeting the picture size is only about 2" by 2" square. By right-clicking on the picture you can double the picture size, but quality really does suffer quite a bit at that size. The USB cable is a little short, but that's more likely a to be problem with the limitations of USB technology as opposed to bad planning by Logitech. The stand is not very stable either so when you get it steady you really have to avoid moving it at all. Overall the camera really needs to be judged on the picture quality for the price you pay, and on that score the Quickcam passes with flying colours. Easy to set up, easy to use - a bargain.

I chose the logitech because it was a brand I had heard of and had decent specs for under 30 bucks. I'm using it so that someone can help me install something and see what I'm doing. It has about the resolution of a modern camera phone. I see some people complain about grainyness. However, you must realize that there is a trade-off with crystal clarity from a webcam and that's that unless you both are on T1 lines you're going to have to SEND all of that clarity and then you'd have severely lagging displays. Be sure the subject is well lit by more of full spectrum lighting (a really yellow lamp looks gross). Unless you're starting a naughty business and if you're just looking for a webcam so that you can chat to friends and go "this is neat" without any severe stipulations on what your demands will be it's just fine. The price is good, the design solid. Suits the average person's needs (webcam thrill will fade and you'll stop using it most likely). If you're going to need to see a loved one stationed overseas or for business use you should probably invest actual money into a quality cam. The stills are lame, get a digicam if you want super clear pics.

If you're looking to save dough and enjoy the amusement of a webcam, the logitech quickcam express is a solid model that will perform reliably and clearly enough.

Piece of junk, picture is grainy and pixelated, 640x480 yeah maybe through interpolation, it can't be optical. You'd better be within 3 feet of this thing with excellent lighting to get a ok picture. Get about 6 feet away with a window behind you, and you won't even recognize yourself. Bought it 'cause it was a logitech, and had 640x480 res, I have a no name brand 352x288 that looks twice as good. If you want to use it for chatting, crank your monitor up to sunburn and sit real close, twist the focus around a little and it'll work for you. But if you want to do more than just chatting, buy something else.

I bought this camera 2 weeks ago. Unlike many other posters here, I had little trouble with the software. I had it installed in 10 minutes. The video is good. Picture gets grainier under artificial light or low lit conditions, but it it is still decent. The one BIG drawback I found with this webcam is how sensitive the microphone is. When talking to someone over AOL IM, we both have to wear headphones. This gets rid of the feedback which creates a horrible background noise. Another solution I have tried is to put a piece of scotch tape over the mike! This eliminates the background noise, at the expense of somewhat dampening the overall audio. Anyway, I would give this camera 4 stars if it weren't for the awful microphone/audio.

The Logitech QuickCam Messenger WebCam is a great little toy for the money. I really can't compare it to other webcams because this is the first one I've ever used. However, installation is pretty easy but takes a strangely long 15-20 minutes. It integrates seamlessly into Yahoo Messenger. It also works alongside AOL IM and MSN Messenger but takes separate software (included). The only catch is the other side has to download special Logitech software to see it with AOL and MSN (I don't know if Yahoo requires an add-in or whether the webcam feature is already included). Still, when I used it with a friend they could see me in less than 5 minutes including the download. As you'd expect, the quality of the feed depends on the connection on both sides. Overall, a good product for a small investment.

i have the veo advanced connect ,it has worked one time,when i'am on a web site everyone esle can see but i can not see any thing that is being shared they can see me but i can not see my self on the screen?can some one let me know what the problem is????????

I own two smooth running Windows PCs. One runs Windows 98 First Edition, the other runs Second Edition. The Veo Advance Connect Camera worked on neither of them.

In fact, upon installing it on one computer, a blue screen-fatal system error automatically popup and persisted as long as the camera was plugged in. Perhaps this problem could be solved- I wouldn't know' tech support never e-mailed back. After 7 days, I gave up on this cheap, hopeless camera and returned it promptly for a Logitech 310 Webcam, one that has decent quality, but at least works.

I have been with the web cam for several months and I
love it very much. The picture quality is pretty nice
in both online instant message programs and local pic-
taking application. Well, the only thing I would
complain about this camera is the looking: not that
pretty :-) Well, it is not web cam not a decoration for
my room.. So no big deal for me.. And plus I like the
"spider" stander which fits my LCD monitor perfectly.
And you can switch the spdier to a flat stander as well.
I video-conversated with my friends and they are impressed
by my image quality and several of them even got the same
one for themselves..

I bought this camera to replace a four-year-old webcam, which had finally died. To the best of my memory, the old one hadn't been particularly expensive either. When it was all plugged in, however, the quality of the pictures was so grainy that it prompted me to get a screwdriver out and fix the old one.

The old webcam rides again, and logitech will be getting this one back.

I like this web cam (and a digital cam) because it was what I needed. Nothing too [spendy] and complicated. I didnt need the greatest picture quality. Just something that would help me to video chat with my friends over the internet and send them some digital pictures. First of all to use this camera you need alot of light..You wont be able to use it in dark..Your face and where the camera stands must be lighted really good. If you do that quality is really nice for it. However sometimes it can be frustrating if you dont have a portable lamp or a portable computer. Otherwise it is really good. It is good for you if your reasons are same with me and if you have pretty good lighting. Digital cam is ok. You can unplug the web cam and use it as camera but light thing has to be the same here. Don't expect digital camera quality. It is easy to use and quick but quality is avarage.

this is a excellent webcam. i bought it used and have had no problem as far as lighting goes. highly recomended

Software EXTREMELY difficult to install. Hardware crashes computer. If you use WIN98SE, look elsewhere because this so-called webcam is not for you. Yeeccchh!

Don't bother! (...)Other than [the] critical failing, the camera works fine. Good video, no need to focus, set light levels, colors, anything. The interface is easy to use and intuitive. Easy to configure. If all you want is a webcam that gets your pearly whites on the internet, this will do it for you.

When it will do it for you.

One other thing... it SAYS that it will E-mail pictures as it snaps them, but this is only if you have some funky Microsoft mailer program. Gotcha!

Bottom line: Try something else.

I bought this camera for my laptop because I WAS frugal and didn't want to spend a lot of money on the only laptop camera out there. I found it to be a great camera for the price! It focused well, and the software loaded on just fine. Terrific little buy!