Creative Labs Webcam II review

As we reported in issue 83, videoconferen-cing has almost come of age.

While the Internet may not be quite up to the job, direct connections over a standard phone line are. All you need is a camera like the WebCam II.

Like the QuickCam VC (reviewed issue 84, p39), the WebCam II is a sexy, black eye which sits on top of your monitor. It's just as easy to install as the QuickCam, but I found the manual focus a little hard to get right, and the overall image was not as clear as the QuickCam's. However, the driver software can digitally zoom in on a portion of the frame, so you can have close up images from a distance.

The main videoconferencing software is Creative Labs' Web Phone. It's for Internet use only - you can't use it for direct dialling by phone. This is a pity as Internet frame rates are limited. WebPhone includes text chat and voice mail, plus the ability to look up addresses of other WebCam II users on a remote server. Also included is ISpy, a clever little utility that takes a snapshot of the WebCam's view and uploads it automatically to a web page. ISpy can be set to do this at a regular interval, allowing you to create a continually updated web image. The final application is Media Studio 2.5VE, which provides all you need for capturing video with the WebCam and editing it.

The WebCam II offers very similar features to the Connectix QuickCam VC. The bundled software is a little more extensive, but the videoconferencing resolutions supported are identical and performance is about the same. If you fancy putting an updating image on the Web, it's worth the extra money over the QuckCam VC, but for straight videoconferencing the latter is better value.

Author: - James Morris