Customer Reviews

Flexible 5.0 Megapixel USB PC Camera Webcam

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

Because of the low price, we decided to give this webcam a try despite some not so great reviews. The webcam worked instantly out of the box on Windows XP. Yes, it is a little wobbly and no the suction cup doesn't really stick...but what do you want for fifteen bucks? The picture is better than any of our previous 3 webcams and the microphone works well. We use it mainly in our kitchen with moderate light and the picture is fine. The microphone works well for group/speaker conversations; there is some feedback on the other end, but it is not too bad. It has a manual focus adjustment that we setup once and then didn't have to adjust it after that. Contrary to other reivews, this webcam works perfectly with Skype/Skype Video (v4.x): no problems at all. THIS IS THE BEST WEBCAM VALUE for the price. If you want basic webcam for chatting with grandma or to use with Skype on Windows PCs, this is the one to get.

I purchased a camera. The camera is amazing. It has great options to adjust picture and lighting. I've been very impressed with the camera for the cost. An excellent purchase for an average to occaisional user of the web cam. I've been satisfied with the overal performance of the web-cam.

A few things to make note of in case you have children or pets:
The item's balance is wobbly so that if you accidentally bump it, it will fall over. The mic is a bit weak when you speak from a distance.

I bought this webcam because my daughter and grandaughter are living in the Netherlands. It is plug and play. Works without flaw. The only thing I have had to deal with is sometimes the webcam doesn't turn on so I have to unplug it and plug it back in. It has a manual focus. The mount is great because you can suction it down and move the camera and the mic around seperatly. Great little camera for the web!

When hooked up to USB 1.1 is gives a picture of 320 by 240 pixels. When hooked up to USB 2, it gives a picture of 640 by 480 pixels. After much unhelpful wading through online support (What is the model number for this thing? It certainly doesn't say on it or its packaging!), I have installed the software. None of it allows me to go above 640 by 480 resolution. If you do the math (640 times 480) you get 307200 pixels, or roughly one fifteenth of 5 megapixels. Perhaps the 5.0 is part of the name of the product and shouldn't be considered an adjective of megapixels. Considering it only has kilopixels, this too is misleading. Also, the microphone is a joke -- it's not electrically part of the camera and just plugs into your sound card with a little analog audio plug. Such microphones never seem to work. Though the base is a piece of junk (what, we have glass desks for attaching suction cups?), that's not a big deal. I can unscrew the gooseneck from the base (it's threaded!) and install it into a something I can put together in my shop.

But for a 640 by 480 picture, it's remarkably good (if a bit slow)-- it's also well-lit in a dark room. So I give it 2 stars despite the blatant falsehoods in the write-up.

I'm noticing misleading verbiage in tech product descriptions a lot these days, by the way. It's a bad trend because we rely on these descriptions when we make purchases on the internet. Words have meaning, particularly technical words like "5.0 megapixel" -- that means something very specific. You can't assume people are just going to read it and say, "Wow, rad! That's cool!" and then not follow up. It burns me up that Amazon is allowing this verbiage to describe this camera. It marks a huge regression back to a time when snake oil medicine men traveled from town to town selling dilute rat poison as a cure for mumps, dropsy, scarlet fever, the shingles, and cancer.

I was just on eBay to look at webcams, and I see, with regard to Hong Kong exporters, it's a free-for-all regarding megapixel claims. (This is for what is essentially this same camera, but with LEDs to provide illumination.) One vendor says his camera has 15 megapixels, and another says his is 20. Then 30. I saw as much as 80 megapixels. The end-game always comes when a child screams "infinity!" but I haven't seen that yet.

I guess I am the only one in the world who really cares that these purported megapixels aren't actually there. Some of the Hong Kong vendors say "20 megapixels isn't a measure of picture size but clarity." That expression is meaningless! Pixels are a measure of picture size -- not quality. End of discussion. It saddens me that these claims are allowed to continue and no check is being placed upon them. Will no one give the eBay sellers a bad rating for bogus claims of megapixels? Well, at least I can do that here on Amazon.com. So screw the two stars I gave this camera. Back down to one, for blatant lies about the number of pixels!

Length:: 2:54 Mins

video review on this camera after a day of owning it.

Here is what you need to know:
Yes, it looks cool
No, the suction cup on the bottom does not work.
Yes, the picture quality is okay for the price
NO THE MICROPHONE DOES NOT WORK.
Yes, you can adjust the picture with the lens on the front
No, it does not stay up. It falls over.
The cord is also very annoying.
I should have gotten a different web cam. I'll just put it as that.

Before buying this webcam i got lots of mixed reviews on how it is! Don't listen to the ones saying its bad cause they are most deffinalty wrong. This webcam is a great buy, the microphone works perfectly and picks up on every thing i say. The camera is 5 megapixels and the picture quailty is amazing. It works perfectly with skype and face book. The webcam is plug-in and use which is great because it doesn't slow your computer down and makes it easy to use. of course the base doesnt stick down but it still stands up and doesn't fall over. The webcam has 10x zoom which i never saw on a webcam before and it makes the experience alot better. I never had problems with the picture it adjusts itself. Alot of the other reviews state problems such as the mirco phone doesnt work but those r from there computer and every computer is different also if u plug the micro phone in the head phone jack it doesnt work. Belive me when i saw this is a great buy dont waste your money on $25- $70 on webcams when u can buy this. its totaly worth it.

I picked up this webcam for under $10 for Skype. It worked immediately in Windows 7 without downloading any drivers. Like other reviews have said, this is definitely not a 5MP, but it works fine for Skype calls. Haven't tested the mic out at all yet.

I didn't figure this out until a month of using the thing, but the suction cup DOES work, contrary to what people are saying. It's just not at all obvious how to use it. You have to push down on the base and then twist the base until you hear a click. This draws in the suction cup and creates quite a strong bond. If you're on some kind of surface that isn't suction cup friendly, you're going to have to either hold the camera up yourself or find a way to attach it to something more stable

This is not a 5 megapixel webcam. This is a 640 x 480 webcam (that's about 1/4 megapixel). That's a lie by a factor of 20x. This common practice of BLATANT LIES about webcam resolution is shameful. The advertisers should be locked away for blatant, intentional fraud. And amazon should be ashamed for not preventing these well known blantant lies.

The camera works, but is not even close to what they claim.

But I refuse to support jerks who lie about their products.

Tell the truth. Some people will buy it for what it is.

The only drawback about this camera is that it is very lightweight and hence very unstable. there is no clip so it cannot be attached to the laptop. It keeps falling quite often when I move from one place to another.
quality is excellent. microphone is also good. it lives upto its promise of completly plug n play.