A new webcam
In the last weeks [post id=885]review[/post] i already mentioned that i bought a new webcam.
Now you might ask why buying a new webcam if every notebook has a built in webcam. My [post id=69]Acer V5-573[/post] has a bult-in webcam for the HD format, providing a resoultion of 1280x720px .
But on the one side i wanted a higher resolution and my desktop PC doesn’t have a webcam, so why not buy a full HD webcam providing a resolution of 1920x1080px .
After a little research i decided to get a Microsoft Studio webcam, which costs under 60,– €. Microsoft is packing a lot of paper with the little cam, but even the quick-guide doesn’t provide information for the button on the cameras top, which obviously only starts Microsoft Essentials, if you don’t install this software package nothing happens 😉
But one thing after the other 😉 after plugging in [post id=320]Windows 8/8.1[/post] installs the required drivers and asks you about installing Windows Essentials, but i left out this installation.
Besides the required drives a dashboard is installed which allows to apply some video effects to the stream, which i personally find quite needless. But the dashboard allows the control of the digital zoom, meaning that the original sized image is cropeed and scaled. The automatic white balance works pretty good, only with mixed light situations there is no real right setting, so you have to adjust it manually.
You probably recognize the difference in image qualitiy between the built-in webcam from the Acer notebook and the Microsoft webcam. The later image is more precise in color and a little bit sharper. And of course there is quite a bit of noise in the image, becaause i made the images in a pretty dark environment.
The autofocus is workig pretty good, but quite slow for extreme change between far and very close subjects.
Adio quality is surprinsingly pretty good and no disturbing noise. Even if the camera is fixed on the notebook frame there are no hall effects because of the distance between speaker and webcam.
The only disrtubing thing is fixing the webcam to my monitor, a Dell U2711, the width of the cams bracket is not wide enough, so fixing it on the monitor is a little bit shaky, but on a notebook the bracket is fairly good.
To conclude i can state that the is pretty with a good audio quality almost fitting perfectly for screencasts, Skype Google+ Hangouts.
I am satiesfied with this little webcam. What do you think, right decision or there better cameras on the market? Just leave me your comments and your questions.
ciao tuxoche
