Microsoft LifeCam HD-6000 720p HD Webcam for Notebooks - Black

by Microsoft

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.9 x 8 x 5.6 inches ; 6.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00372567A
• Item model number: 7PD-00001
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #32 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Webcams
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 3, 2010

Product Description

Style: Retail

From the Manufacturer

Share life on the go. Enjoy a high-quality widescreen image, Auto Focus, and the vivid color and clarity of TrueColor Technology with the LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks, featuring true 720p HD video. Optimized for Windows Live and Windows 7, the LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks also works with Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Skype for video calls and messaging.

HD Done Right:

An HD webcam can mean the difference between a good experience and a great one. With cinematic 16:9 widescreen 720p- video, crystal-clear images with Auto Focus and bright and colorful video with TrueColor Technology, you won't find another High Definition video experience like LifeCam HD-3000, HD-5000, or HD-6000 for Notebooks.

	True 720p HD Widescreen Video With virtually all new computer displays shipping in 16:9 widescreen and social networking sites now accepting uploaded widescreen video, Microsoft HD LifeCams offer true 720p widescreen video capture at up to 30 frames per second. Which means you'll be able to create higher quality widescreen webcam videos without having to worry about jerky frame speeds.
	Sharp Close-ups The auto-focus feature on Microsoft HD LifeCams works just like the auto-focus feature on your digital camera to keep your video sharp no matter how close an object is to the LifeCam. Perfect for showing small objects—such as a ring or a business card—up close. And Auto Focus is built right into the camera, so there's never a need to adjust the focus by hand.
	Bright, Colorful Video with TrueColor Technology TrueColor is an advanced technology that automatically delivers bright, colorful video under virtually all lighting conditions. It uses the power of the PC to intelligently analyze the scene and determine the optimal video settings even in low quality lighting.

Find a Webcam That's Right for You:

LifeCam HD-6000 System Requirements:

Windows® 7/Windows Vista®/Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or higher, excluding Windows XP Pro 64-bit; VGA video calling: Intel Dual-Core 1.6 GHz or higher, 1 GB of RAM; 720p HD recording: Intel Dual-Core 3.0 GHz or higher, 2GB of RAM 1.5 GB free space USB 2.0 Windows-compatible speakers or headphones You must accept License Terms for software download. Internet functions and Software Installation also require: Internet Explorer® 7/8/9; 25 MB hard-drive space typically required. Internet access may be required for certain features. Local and/or long-distance telephone toll charges may apply. Software download required for full functionality of all features.

Product Description

Microsoft LifeCam HD-6000 Webcam - Coal Black 7PD-00001 89

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very good video quality, abysmal autofocus, August 17, 2010

By 

Chris (NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft LifeCam HD-6000 720p HD Webcam for Notebooks - Black (Personal Computers)

To use this camera for video calls it's an absolute must to disable the autofocus. And unfortunately you must do it every time you've rebooted your computer, if not every time you restart your video calling program. The autofocus will hunt back and forth over its full focusing range on a regular basis even if the subject is relatively close to the camera and moving very little. The end result is maddening. I don't know if this "feature" is reduced by a super strong connection, but I do know I'm not the first to complain about it by any means.

The only solution is to open up the camera settings and disable the hyped "true color + ClearFrame Technology". Once this box is unchecked you can then go into the "Properties" and uncheck autofocus. While you're at it you may want to uncheck the auto exposure and the auto color temperature and just make adjustments there that look good to you.

Once you've killed the horribly evil autofocus the video is actually quite good for such a tiny camera. That's why I give this 3 stars instead of 1. I've used it with Skype and the video is sometimes good even with sub 500 Kbit connections. It is definitely much, much, better than the built in camera in a new Dell laptop (relatively high end with a Core i5 and 4GB RAM) just purchased in the past 2 months. It's also better than a camera built into an iMac that I've had the opportunity to compare with.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome product, and works with 64bit of Windows 7, September 30, 2010

By 

PJ - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft LifeCam HD-6000 720p HD Webcam for Notebooks - Black (Personal Computers)

Not sure what the other reviewers are saying, but I installed the software successfully on couple of my 64-bit Windows 7 laptops by visiting Microsoft's hardware site.

Also installed Windows Live Essentials 2011 that includes Windows Live Messenger and other stuff (Live Mail client app, Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker, etc).

Webcam was very economical, and provides awesome pictures and hd video after turning off auto-focus feature (by going into settings and disabling TrueColor).

I am pretty happy with the product, and hope others will provide an accurate review of this product.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great little webcam with one major flaw, April 6, 2011

By 

kidicarus - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft LifeCam HD-6000 720p HD Webcam for Notebooks - Black (Personal Computers)

I picked this up for chatting with my wife while I was in Japan and am pretty happy with it.

Pros:
-The video quality is very good, much better than the built in camera on her laptop.
-The mic was very sensitive and I could move around the hotel room without shouting.
-Comes with a handy little pouch and the built in cable-minder is also well designed.
-Can clip onto just about anything shaped like a picture frame.
-Swivel head had a good range of motion and wasn't too loose.

Cons:
-Small gripe here but the indicator light can be hard to spot compared with normal cams. It's the little blue ring where the unit swivels.
-And the big gripe is a software issue, they'll patch it someday I hope. The autofocus does this pulsing cycle where it drifts out and then jerks back into focus. You can disable it in the settings and set it at infinite focus(0) and things are just fine. However there isn't a way to change the defaults so when you reboot your computer it will re-enable autofocus and you have to disable it all over again. There's discussion of the issue on many forums but no fix that I've seen to date.

When they fix the software this will be a 5 star webcam.

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