Creative Labs Live Ultra Webcam VF0490

by Creative Labs

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 2.2 x 11.7 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00070FRJW
• Item model number: VF0060
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 12, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Creative WebCam Live! Ultra is a feature-rich webcam that will give you an amazing video instant messaging experience. With a unique wide-angle lens, instant messaging is like never before. Now you and your entire family can get in front of the camera and say "hello," all at once. The Live! Ultra's wide-angle lens produces a 50% wider field of view than most other webcams, so now three or more people can stand or sit in a comfortable space and video chat together. The Live! Ultra's smart face tracking feature keeps you in the center of attention, and it even detects when there are multiple people in the room and zooms out to get everybody in the picture.

Creative Live! Ultra is a true high-speed USB 2.0 device. With high-speed USB 2.0 you'll get faster frame rates with your video, making it smoother and more fluid than video using USB 1.1 webcams. You'll also see more vibrant, true-to-life colored images when instant messaging. It is the perfect webcam for sharing live video on the Internet, especially for those with a broadband connection.

Video quality is not the only thing that matters when instant messaging. You want to be heard clearly as well. That is why we include a high quality headset with Creative Live! Ultra. The Creative hands-free headset makes sure only your voice is delivered through the Internet by eliminating any background noise and crosstalk. With the hands-free headset, you'll also enjoy a private conversation when video chatting.

• Wide-angle video captures a 50% wider field of view
• High-speed USB 2.0 for smooth video and true-to-life images
• Smart face tracking with 4X digital zoom keeps you in the center of the video
• Super clear voice over the Internet with Creative headset
• 1.3 Megapixel snapshots are perfect to post on the web

Product Description

Go anywhere, be anywhere, and stay connected all the times! Whether you are enjoying a cup of cappuccino at a cafe, waiting for a flight at an airport, or simply decked out in your backyard, you want to stay connected to the world. With the Creative Live! Cam Notebook Ultra, you can say hi to your friends, family, or colleagues, wherever you roam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good choice, July 4, 2005

By 

M. Brodsky - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs Live Ultra Webcam VF0490 (Personal Computers)

I just installed Creative's Live Ultra Webcam and Live Ultra Webcam Notebook Version on my two computers and tested our videoconferencing with each other. The true USB 2.0 connection struck me as an advantage in purchasing this item. For the most part, I am happy. The quality of the video is good. I activated the feature that causes the camera to zoom in and out automatically to track the face of the user, and it worked quite well in "continuous" mode. There is one clear glitch, which is that on both of my computers (Win XP) I cannot get the computer to recognize the cam without disconnecting and reconnecting the USB connection each time I reboot. Creative's tech support people initially suggested just reinstalling the software, which was the lazy way out and did nothing but waste my time.

I used Yahoo Messenger to arrange the videoconferencing. I found the instructions for doing this pretty useless, but eventually I figured it out (I think). Making the connection is one challenge. Getting the connection to work at a tolerable speed (what Yahoo calls Super Webcam mode) is darn near a mystery, though with enough trial and error it happens. (Given that Creative Labs promotes Yahoo Messenger and vice versa, I cannot fathom why so little attention was given to instructing purchasers of this webcam how to use Messenger. Companies that make add-ons routinely make silly mistakes with instructions that only serve to drive up their costs of service and aggravate their customers, but that's a broader subject.) I have a personal firewall via my virus software, and I think it may have helped to ratchet that back.

Modest irritants aside, the product itself seems very solid, and once you get it working it's easy to use the features and the quality is good.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally impressed, May 14, 2005

By 

John the Italian (Central Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Labs Live Ultra Webcam VF0490 (Personal Computers)

I only wanted to spend 50 bucks for a webcam, and I saw this Creative Labs Live! line. I actually intended to buy the regular Live, and not the Ultra, based on what people were saying. When I got to the store, though, all the info people kept raving about was mostly actually details about THIS camera, that they had confused with the more basic version. I haven't used the Live! but I can tell you this is worth the price so it's certainly worth the difference in price.

Not only is it quick and easy to install but the picture quality is great. For some people at high-res video it might be a little grainy (colored noise I mean) but it's nothing you pay attention to. The thing that surprised me is you can EDIT the video with sliders! Color saturation, gamma, contrast, etc... like the basic Photoshop of video, even while the feed is taking place. Comes with a cute headset, plenty of options and file formats. It even looks cool. This feels ritzy to own, but because of how functional it is, and how good it is at doing what it's supposed to. Pleasantly surprised, and glad it worked out this way.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Software Conflict, June 12, 2005

By 

Carl William Sisco "Carl" (Jackson, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Labs Live Ultra Webcam VF0490 (Personal Computers)

I purchased the Creative Labs Live Ultra WebCam VF0060 for my home PC. Unfortunatley, it would never give a video picture. I phoned Creative Labs and their Tech. support people indicated a conflict with Haupauge WinTV. The only choice offered was to delete the WinTV software or return the webcam to Amazon. Before I chose to return the webcam, I tried it on my daughters laptop that does not have WinTV loaded. The video and audio feeds where excellent. The moral: If you have WinTV loaded on your computer, this isn't the webcam for you!