I Needed a WebCam. I Got a Great One!
Written: Jan 22 '01 (Updated Jan 22 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good Picture, Easy to Use and Install
Cons: Minor Personal Problems Mentioned in Review
The Bottom Line: I love this camera for sending streaming audio in a chat format. The camera is high quality and efficient.
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| bluekennedy's Full Review: 3Com HomeConnect PC Digital Camera |
I purchased this camera upon entry to college. It was a necessity in my life since I was going to school in Texas and leaving my boyfriend home in Pennsylvania. A webcam would be our only way of seeing each other!
His computer is a bit newer than mine, so it came with a webcam. He already had a service called PalTalk downloaded to use his cam. For a while we would use the program with only him having a camera on. After a while, I clicked on an add where my video would have appeared had I had a camera and was given a few options of webcams that I could purchase. I decided on the 3com HomeConnect PC Digital Camera.
When I received it in the mail, I was extremely excited. I installed it quickly. The software was easy to install. I could have done it if I had never installed something onto a computer in my life.
Upon installation I found myself installing a few things. The first thing was the drivers and actual software that would run the camera. This is installed in your program files under a folder called HomeConnect. This folder contains the actual camera application (HC.exe). a wizard to setup up NetMeeting using the camera, a USB system check program to see if you have the capability to use the camera through USB, a video editting program, a viewer using the camera to capture video and various other tasks, and another video-capturing program.
I was disappointed to find that I couldn't get my camera to work over the school network as we don't have some type of necessity IP address. I can't recall precisely what the network administrator told me, but I knew that I couldn't run an IP address from my computer because it would make the network penetrable.
I am a wee bit crafty, though, and lucky enough to use AOL. I found a local access number and managed to get my video to transmit through dial-up. Yay! It wasn't a defect with this rather expensive hardware, but a stupid little thing with my college network.
The camera itself is great. It's small and flat. It takes up virtually no room and sits easily on top of my monitor. The base is flat and has little rubber things on the bottom of the base that make it sit in its place fairly well. The little wheel near the eye of the camera is really easy to adjust the focus of the picture. There is a small button on that top of the camera that will supposedly take a still picture. I've tried pressing it plenty of times with nothing occurring. But this is no problem, as I can go to their program and take a still picture as well as adjust color and other certain aspects of the camera's function.
The one major problem I have with the camera is that you cannot touch it while using it, as the USB cable hook-up in the back of the camera seems to be loose. If you move the camera slightly or the cable at all, you will lose the connection from port to camera. This is extremely frustrating as you can't just readjust the cable and start the program again. Every time you lose the input connection you have to restart the computer.
This is not truly a major set back. Just don't jolt the darned thing around that much! All in all, there aren't many problems I have with the camera itself. The picture is clear, the color is fine, and it is extremely easy to use. I recommend this camera for anyone that wants a webcam to transfer video across an internet connection. I have never tried to use it for much else, so I couldn't tell you the quality of the camera in those aspects. But for streaming video, this camera is perfect.
I know there are definitely cheaper cameras on the market, and I'm sure they work well. But Seth's camera, which came with his computer, is very fuzzy and freezes sometimes. If you pay a little extra, you can get a higher quality picture and a better-working camera. I paid $150 plus shipping and handling for this camera. Definitely more than I had originally wanted to pay, but it was definitely worth it to have a better camera in the long run.
The 3com HomeConnect PC Digital Camera has been a great addition to my system. It may be a great addition for yours also.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bluekennedy
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Member: Marhia McAndrew
Location: Reading, PA, USA
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 36 members
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