bertbert's Full Review: Creative Technology Video Blaster Notebook Web Cam
Features
Ultra compact USB Webcam with laptop screen clip.
640x480 VGA CMOS sensor
Field of view at 44 degrees Horizontal
Movies at 15-30 frames per second depending on system.
Manual Focus Lens
USB 1.1
Package contents:
USB camera with attached USB cable. Driver and application CDROM. ArcSoft Image editing and multimedia email software CDROM. Soft Carrying case. Quick Start Guide.
Size, Portability and design
What attracted me to this webcam is its size. Measuring only 580mm(L) X 24.85mm(W) X 420mm(H) and weighing only 110 grams, this is one of the smallest webcams on the market with a laptop screen clip. The clip of this webcam is capable of attaching to a maximum width of 14mm (0.5") and works well on my HP laptop. The webcam is constructed of plastic but it still looks pretty sleek. The cam can be rotated along a vertical axis from -45 degs to 225 degs. This is the second feature that attracted me to this webcam. The USB cable is thinner than usual and comes with a attached velcro strip for easy wire bundling - Nice touch. The wire is also long enough to reach any part of your laptop.
Installing the device and software
Installing the software was a breeze, unlike the woes from other reviewers. I followed the instructions to the "tee". Installing the device was not as simple. The camera is detected and working initially. However, once I engaged any software that uses the camera, like Yahoo Messenger, MSN or even Creative's supplied PC-CAM Center software, the camera will freeze within 2 minutes. The light on the camera will go dark and the camera will not work. The only way to remedy this is to unplug the device and plug it back in. The longest I kept the camera going was around 5 minutes when I have the power adapter plugged into the laptop. (Laptop had full charge when I first installed the webcam).
Picture Quality and settings
For the short amount of time I managed to get the camera to work, I was disappointed with the imgae quality. Even in a moderately well-lit room, the picture is very dark. I managed to fix that by going into the camera settings and changed a setting called "band filtering" (in the advanced tab) from 50Hz to 60Hz. The picture became much brighter but I still see a lot of snowflakes in the picture. The picture is coarse and very much worse than my old Intel CS430 webcam I bought back in 1999. Picture quality in both 640x480 and 320x240 resolutions came out equally disappointing.
By now, I am not sure if you are still interested in this webcam but other parameters you can adjust in the cam properties include: Auto Exposure (on/off), Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Sharpness, Notebook Backlight compensation. I did not remember the rest as I was too disappointed to bother.
Performance
Like I mentioned before. This webcam simply cannot perform as a Notebook webcam. Running on batteries on my laptop, it would stop working as soon as it is put to serious use. What is the point of having a portable Notebook webcam if I have to stay plugged in into the wall socket? Performance-wise this webcam simply does not stack up to my needs.
Overall
Creative Notebook Webcam started off well. It has good size with a well thought-out design in the swivel head, the carrying case and the velcro wire tie. However, it falls flat on its face in terms of usability both in image quality and basic stability and functionality. This webcam is going back to the store tomorrow. I am very disappointed with Creative Labs since the last 2 products of theirs I bought both failed me terribly. I am now twice bitten...
Value
For your good health, please avoid this product as it offers more frustration and stress than any significant value.
Mininum requirements: Pentium II, Athlon, 366MHz or higher, 128MB RAM. Win 98/98SE/Me/2k/XP, USB 1.1
My system: HP Pavillion Notebook Pentium 3 1.3 GHz, 512MB RAM with Windows XP Pro SP2. (My machine way exceeds the requirements right? so what's the problem??)
180-degree adjustable camera angle 640 x 480 (VGA) image sensor takes up to 1.3-megapixel photos (software interpolated) Hands-free headset for cleare...More at Amazon Marketplace
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