Customer Reviews

Creative Labs VF0280 Live! Cam Optia AF 2.0 MP Web Cam with Auto Focus

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have an Apple MacPro system running MacOS X 10.4, and I wanted a setup that allows me to use Skype with video and sound. Initially, I thought I need to get a video camera, a microphone and speakers separately.

Since the Optia AF has not only a video camera, but also a built-in microphone, I decided to give it a try. I was more than impressed with the ease of use of setting it up: just plug it in a USB port, start up Skype, tell it to use the USB video camera and the USB audio device and everything works perfectly. No need to install any software, it worked out-of-the-box. The camera works great with iChat and PhotoBooth applications too, again without installing additional software.

Autofocus is fairly fast in a well lit room, and if you don't move suddenly in front of the camera. As you start moving the camera tends to hunt the focus a little bit, but that's something I'd expect from such cameras.

Colors are fairly saturated and the image has good contrast. I like the colors a lot better than those generated by the tiny cameras embedded within the latest generation of iBooks, when used in similar light conditions. The Optia AF is also much better in low light than those cameras, with less grain and better colors.

Sound quality is very good. I don't get any echoes even with the computer' speaker close to the camera's microphone. The sound on the other side is natural, without artifacts. The camera's built-in microphone is great, since my desk space is not cluttered with one more thing I need to worry about (wires, additional USB port or line-in, etc).

The camera fits very well on an Apple Cinema display, and could be easily oriented to frame you. When the camera is in use, a blue light turns on to indicate it. The camera can be rotated in a position that prevents it from turning on, thus providing privacy when you need it.

The only feature missing is the ability to zoom in or out manually, but I don't think it's crucial. The camera's focal length is chosen very well for Skype-type applications (it appears to be the 35mm equivalent of 35mm cameras).

I don't have experience setting this up on Windows, but if you're on Mac, I'd highly recommend this camera.

I have a lot of web cams, having been part of a few video related software projects, but it always seems that when I need a cam fast for some test the one I grab or the only one at hand is one that doesn't have its drivers installed on the test machine.

I was wary of a driver-less cam because it was one of those holy grail items. However, what the heck, I gave it a try. And what do you know, you plug it in and that's it. It is recognized and you're off to the races.

I've used it on Windows 2003R2 Server along with Camtasia, on XPPro for flash video testing and on TabletPC2005. Every one detected and ran it. However some DirectX software lost the camera connection when I tried to iterate the extended properties of the camera device, I figure that's the tradeoff of driver-free.

The framerate drops quite a bit when used along with Camtasia, but so do my other logitechs. I think it's a little worse but still very useable.

I haven't installed the creative software so I can't confirm or deny the previous reviewers experiences. Again this a a major reason to buy this unit, you aren't forced to install lots of stuff you don't need.

One thing I wasn't expecting was that the mic would be any good without added helper installation. And honestly I had my doubts that even with the software installed those two mics so close together would give you the real power of a phase array like we have on tablets or pro mics with dsps built-in. Another surprise... the mics picked up my naration of a screencast very nicely from about three feet away and even did pretty well at reducing the levels of a movie track that someone was working on in the next cube.

The clip? I actually find it pretty good. It holds onto the top of both my desktop lcds (inch and a half deep) and the top of my convertable fujitsu T4215 (less than a half inch deep). It's not super tight but it holds well and the little strips of rubber help it stay in place even without it being a tight clamp. Oh, and it only goes down about a half inch from the top of the monitor which means it doesn't touch the lcd on most displays. Nice work on that design.

The camera barrel swivels smoothly all the way around for better lining up of your targets and the tension is just right, not too loose & not too tight.

In all, a good buy.

I'm buying a few more for my crew. Beats running around going "I've got an Orb, do you have the drivers? No? Who took my NotebookPro, it'a all I have installed on this box!" :)

I bought this cam to replace my aging intel webcam. My intel webcam worked great, and also functioned as a detacable ditigal camera, which I made good use of. Intel's software was simple, but easy to use. Unfortunately, intel no longer makes cameras, and no brand seems to make detachable webcameras anymore.
However, since my webcam was several years old now, I wanted to update it and creative's optia AF seemed to offer the best specs. The camera worked like crap right from the start. At the high resolution modes, the camera is very choppy. At the lower modes it smoothes out, but the picture gets extremely dark. Then the camera, after only one use, stopped working at all. I called creative and they quized me up and down. I asked them about the software issues and they told me they were unaware of any software issues with this product despite the fact,that their own website forum list numerous complaints about software bugs with this product. Because it was in the first 3 months they finally agreed that I could send it in. After over a month later, I get a call saying they can't fix it and don't have a replacement to send me. I told them I wanted a refund, and they told me that wasn't their policy, that I could exchange it for something else. At first they offered a lesser webcam, which was cheaper then what I had paid for and had worse specs. Then they offered me a mp3 player, but I had to pay them another 50 bucks cause it was more expensive, also I'm getting a refurbished model. That was their best offer. Don't buy from this company.

The camera itself isn't too bad but the supplied software has "issues". If I am doing a Skype video call and start playing with the audio FX, sooner or later my system will freeze and have to be powered cycled.

Also the video FX background replacement just doesn't work very well. I really wanted that.

The animated avitars are pretty lame and unresponsive. The marketing information makes it all look quite a bit better than the reality of the product, at least at the current software levels.

This is a very stylish camera. The manufacturer claims that its compatible with OS X (10.4.9 and later) but I've experienced one very annoying problem with it. My Mac will not recognize the camera after it awakes from sleep. I'm running Leopard (10.5.1). I have to reseat the USB 2.0 plug if I want to use the camera after my Mac wakes from sleep. Aside from this, the camera works great. I'm satisfied with image and sound quality. In this regard, the camera lives up to its promises. Unfortunately, the manufacturer does not do a good job responding to customers on its website (forums). I haven't been able to get any help. My final rating is sub-par because I'm a little disappointed. This problem should be solvable, but the manufacturer doesn't seem to care very much. I'd like to give a better rating because its a nice camera, but unfortunately, it doesn't work properly on the Mac.

Plugged it in on my Mac and it rocks... better video quality than my logitech. AutoFocus is great, people have commented on the better quality of the video.
no problems whatsoever. And people have said that the sound quality is less "speakerphone" than the logitech, even with the chat output going to my stereo (with speakers on either side of the mike). Clip works great on my LCD monitor. am going to buy a 2d one for the downstairs machine. it's actually more compact than the pictures make you think. another plus point.

only down side is the software is evidently only for windows, so can't get any fun with that. but for the camera and the microphone performance, it's worth the money.

Although the video quality is great with this camera, there are some driver problems that lead me to give it only a 3 star rating. The camera is advertised as working with Vista. I installed it under 32-bit Vista Enterprise with SP-1. The camera appeared to work great until I tried to use it with Live Meeting or Office Communicator.

The problem centers on the built-in microphones, or their driver. The microphones use the USB bus. They automatically find and use the Microsoft generic USB audio driver when the camera is plugged in. Because this device is not of the type "Microphone" it does not show up in most programs that are looking for "Microphones," including Live Meeting and Communicator. There is a "Virtual Microphone" device that does show up; but, the driver does not route the audio signal to this device. So, what it boils down to is that the built-in, noise-cancelling, stereo microphones are useless with most software.

In order to use this camera as I intended, I had to purchase a headset to use for audio.

Which brings me to Creative Support. I exchanged a long series of e-mails trying to explain the problem to Support. They seemed utterly un-interested in actually solving the problem. Instead they kept pointing me to existing web resources that pertained mainly to XP or other operating systems. They ignored my repeated pleas to refer the problem to their software development team and kept trying to shift the responsibility of diagnosing and fixing the problem back to me. The responses were also painfully slow, with approximately 24 hours elapsing between each. Finally, they stopped answering my e-mails.

I recommend that anyone using Vista and looking for a camera and microphone to use with Live Meeting or Communicator look elsewhere. Some of my colleagues seem pleased with the Logitech camera.

it doesn't work so well in conjunction with a mac pro. I bought this webcam back in march 08, and so far have been totally disappointed with its performance. the picture is grainy at best and all broken up at worst. sound appears to echo when used, I've often had to cut short video calls due to problems with the sound.
I've since replaced this with the logitech 9000 pro, which at $20 less i consider a complete bargain. so far the 9000 pro provides a much crisper image ( i have yet to try the sound out).

This camera only works with bundled applications and a few others like AOL IM, etc... and barely at that. Even when using Creative's bundled software, switching between modes (video mode, picture mode, etc), the software locks up and forces you to restart.

IF you use another IM client, like Trillian, forget about it. And using it as an imaging device for other software like Photoshop, Paint.net, etc - double forget it.

The camera turns off whenever you are not using one of the bundled apps. Other applications can see the camera is installed, but since it automatically turns itself off (with no manual way to turn it back on), you can forget about using it to grab snapshots for editing.

Customer support? Horrible. They ask you to do the same things any novice would even know to do - download the latest drivers, re-install, etc etc... none of which work.

I returned mine after 3 days, got the Logitech 9000 instead and am VERY happy I did so. These 2 cameras are approximately the same price - but look at the actual customers ratings... Logitech mainly has nothing but praise, while you can see the comments on this one. Check Newegg's reviews; this one barely gets 2 stars there and you know most of Newegg's customers are the tech-y type.

To sum it up - this sucks (like all other Creative cams), has driver issues (like all other Creative cams), and horrible customer support (like everything else Creative - just check their company support forums - you'll see it's filled with unanswered complaints & questions).

[...] Trust me, You'll thank me later.

My reasons for selecting this camera were because of the time lapse and motion detection features. I wasn't particularly interested in using it as a web cam. On the third or fourth try I finally got the time lapse mode to perform but could not see any way to change the interval from the default period of 30 seconds. My major complaint with this product is the total lack of an instruction manual with any useful information content at all. So you are stuck trying to figure it out by trial and error. Apparently the manufacturers approach is "you bought it, you figure it out". I plan to return it for a refund.