Customer Reviews

Creative Labs WebCam NX Ultra

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This camera is decent quality for using it through the chat programs. When it's evening, you will need a separate lamp that is close to you (preferably in front of you) to make the colors right; however, this is much better at low light than the cheap Logitech camera I have (which just displays black instead of distorted colors).

I plugged it (and the microphone headset that came with it - nice touch!) into an IBM laptop running XP, and had zero problems getting them to run with the chat programs. You do have to install the software to get it to take pictures, however.

The clamp takes a little getting used to, but it will sit flat, hang on to your LCD (it involves balancing, so don't think you can move your laptop with it hanging on), or put it to your regular CRT monitor. This kind of versatility is useful.

The face tracking is interesting. The camera itself is panoramic, so it's realistic to think that it can follow your head as you move left and right (without physically moving the camera).

One last specialness to note about this camera. Because it is not the Logitech brand, you can set it up to output to your website (although this eats your bandwidth up) instead of paying for the monthly fee to put it on Logitech's site.

The image quality and performance of this camera aren't bad, but it has a very wide field of view. This is great if you intend to use it as a baby monitor, security cam, or need to show several people at once, but it's really lousy for 1-on-1 video conferencing or IM. Unless you place it 10 inches from your face you're wasting most of the resolution(and bandwidth) on the background. This arrangement is quite unflattering as it exagerates facial features and reminds me of how people look through the peep hole in your front door - not what you're looking for if trying to attract a mate online.

This is a cool webcam. I had been wanting to buy this for quite some time, but was unwilling to spend $99 for a webcam. (...) I can say this with some degree of confidence, because I have used 2 logitech webcams in the past 1 year - a low-tech logitech (2002 model approx $30 on Amazon) and another logitech (2003 model approx $60 on Amazon). In terms of picture clarity and size, this one beats the competition hands down. In fact, the day after I ordered the webcam, I stumbled upon this review/comparison of webcams (2 Creatives, 2 Logitechs and a high-end brand) which made me feel very good about my decision to order the NX Ultra for the reduced price. (...)

If you are in the market for a webcam, I would strongly recommend Creative Webcam NX Ultra. You will not be disappointed!

We use this camera to show our kids to grand parents in another country and overall I am extremely satisfied with the product.

Good: Some complain about the wide angle making the face look too small, but if one enables face tracking, camera will do a good job of focusing on one's face. This feature is based on digital zoom, so the image quality will suffer a bit, but this won't make much difference in video conferencing. In fact I like the wide angle feature since our daughter moves around a lot and I can have face tracking follow her to spaces where other cameras can not. Surely face tracking time-to-time fails to track her movement but it is better than holding her in front of the camera or constantly adjusting the camera pointing her.

Image quality in low light is supreme. I've used several CMOS based camera and also Digital Camcorders as webcams and NX Ultra's image quality can par up with Digital Camcorder connected to firewire port.

Bad: Lack of integrated microphone. I wish they had included this on the unit it self, then again a head set is included, which is pretty decent.

I purchased this from Amazon last month.. I stay away from my family due to work, I don't want to purchase a cheap quality camera and not able to use it properly...

I read the reviews at amazon and few other places and compared few other different webcam also.. I found this product is rated good..

It is very simple to install and it fits nicely in my laptop and you need to have some light in the back of the webcam for good color and better quality.. I think, that is common with all the cameras .. I use with yahoo messenger... on windows XP. It took just few min. to install and so far I am happy with the purchase...

I would recommend this strongly.

Face-tracking~wide-area view, etc. is all fine but the essential component of this unit is it uses CCD (charged coupled device) rather than a CMOS. This makes a HUGE difference to (a) clarity of picture (b) Exposure.
In layman's terms - CCD-devices are the de facto standard in every handy-cams/video-equipment in the market today. CMOS is nowhere a match to CCD in terms of quality/resolution/contrast & hue.
I have done a through and in-depth search of other options available applicable for personal/home use within this price-range and found NONE using CCD.
The additional features - digi-zoom and face-tracking is a DEFINITE plus at this cost - in fact again found very few alternatives at this price-range.
One can always check the support site - through the software itself for upgrades/patches/etc.
For a cost-consious buyer who wishes to purchase a web-cam primarily for their near-and-dear ones - this is a terrific buy.
The only caveat: Wish this camera was USB 2.0 compatible!

I had/have the Pro EX model and this NX Ultra holds onto the top of the notebook computer much better. The colors are very warm and image is SHARP.
I've used it on Yahoo and AIM chat clients with no issues as of yet.
Reviews mention that landscaped picture is not sufficient in 1 on 1 video conferencing. Not necessarily true. Yahoo has a setting in the webcam that allows for zoom. This setting held over into AIM's viewing session as well.
Extremely reasonable pricing, which is why I've been buying Creative for the last 2 years. The sale prices(...)and quality of the item is a great impression of the company overall.
I'm very happy with this NX Ultra purchase.

very nice view, zooms itself, follows your face a very smart cam.
its good at white and bright light, needs to be adjusted at dim light or low freq lights.

All this cam needs is a build in microphone and I'd give it 5 stars (It comes with a head set)! Other than that I'm very satisfied with the product. I use it mainly for my mother to see her grandchildren, because she lives in Europe. Thats why I love the wide angle lens, they can run around and she can see everything. My other webcam would only get me sitting infront of the computer and nobody else, I didn't like that for my use. I guess it depends on what you use it for! I love it, all it needs is a build in mic to make it perfect!

I have this for almost a year now. It works great with yahoo messenger. Its quality is visible to the naked eye compared to other cheaper webcams. The face tracking software is just cool.