Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Hi Web-Grammie here: My daughter told me about this web cam that was on Amazon.com about 3weeks ago. I couldn't find it cheaper anywhere. I Had never ordered from Amazon before so I didn't know what to expect. I was very pleasently suprised at how easy and fast it was to order. Received this WEB-CAM in three days. I am very happy with this product. It allows me to keep in visual touch with my grandchildren (7) all under 6years of age. We all know how fast they can grow. The picture and sound are great. It was very easy to install because I'am not very experienced with all this new technology. Thanks Amazon WEB-Grammie

Have run this camera through a few tests after reading complaints that it defaults back to factory settings once camera adjustments are made. I previouly tested the Logitech C270 HD web cam and returned it back to Walmart (The 270 specs out as the C260 3Mb cam version, but made for Walmart with an added mic headset in the package for around $35.) May have been an update to the HD-6000 software since those earlier reviews were written as I closed out the program and fired it back up to find my image settings did not revert back to defaults, but held as I set them.

Autofocus: Good feature concept but HD-6000 is too slow and searches too long for focus. Once it has you, it is clear, but if you suddenly sit back in your chair a foot, the camers does a 2 second search to re-focus. I turned feature off auto focus and the depth of field in normal indoor light still provided good range of in-focus image for typical sitting-at-desk video call.

Color controls: White Balance defaults was OK from my experience, but much is based on the light source. Flouresent lights cause challenges for many auto white balance settings. The Logitech C270 looked better for image color out of the box. I found the color saturation accurate enough at default, but image seems to accentuate subtle skin tone differences, and is not remedied with the contrast adjustment and Hue was not adjustable, which is likely the culprit. Microsoft... you listening? We need full control of the image quality.

Image Resolution Controls: Key feature compared to many HD cams (especially compared to Logitech C270 and I understand many of their other HDs which have no adjustment in the sw) is the ability to adjust the image resolution. Unless you have reliable high bandwidth (well over 1 Mb both ways) you will get no image on one or the other end of the call if on Skype. I'm on the road and often using mobile aircard connections with 256K or below. I was able to adjust the resolution to get the HD-6000 camera to work adequately in lower bandwidth situations... many resolutions to choose from with MS software. That is a big advantage to this camera and software. Now it can meet almost all video chat needs and serve as an HD widescreen camera for quick digital home movies. Note: Yahoo video calls seemed to auto adjust image quality and frame rate to try and compensate for lower bandwidth connections. This camera worked with Yahoo better in a poor bandwidth scenario than with Skype. Logitech C270 hard set 720 HD mode meant only one side of the video call would work at a time. I did not try the Logitech on Yahoo.

Have determined to keep this HD-6000 as I like the control options and it mounts very securely to my Laptop... again, unlike the Logitech HD C270 C260 which is a bit too loose with no spring tension. 4 Star instead of 5 is because it should have better image rendering color and white balance out of the box, and even better with the controls. Logitech wins for image quality, but I rate the Logitech C270 and C260 3 stars because no software image resolution control reflects a very, very limited view of the consumer needs.

This product (HD-6000) is great looking, but it has major limitations:

- No TWAIN Driver for standard applications.
- It doesnt capture really sharp images (Do not believe otherwise)
- It gets a little a little too warm when used... YES... Hot compared to others.
- Movies produced in high res where produced with low frames.

In other words... Not worth all the hype.

Does not do what it is supposed to do. Attached to a W7 64bit computer freshly setup and after several hours of attempting to get it to work I gave up. Downloaded all the latest software from MS as well as the latest driver for this software. Good luck with the driver page on MS as it is very poorly put together and hard to determine just what you should utilize. Purchased because I thought that since it was Microsoft it would work with their software. It does not. No support and no way to get it to work. Replaced with a Logitech Webcam which set up easily and works flawlessly. The LifeCam is not worth purchasing.

I was looking for a camera for my laptop. I did not want a long cord that was combersome to deal with.

This camera comes with an 18-inch cord ... perfect size. And, the picture quality is super.

I can highly recommend this camera.

I bought this camera for my sister so we could skype. I thought the auto focus would be a nice feature but it turns out that it is always trying to adjust itself. It gets really annoying to see her go in and out of focus all the time. A brighter lit room did help this problem a little bit but it still happened. The video quality is great for the price and I helped my sister walk through the installation in just about 10 minutes. Not bad but I think the step down without the auto focus is very similar in features and cost about 15 bucks less so it may be a better buy overall. Personal choice high def and focus problems or lower def and no focus problems.

By far, this is the best HD webcam that I have used. It was easy to set up and connect. I used it first to have my kids video call their cousins in New York (I'm in Atlanta) and the first thing they said was "...WOW! I can see you real clear! That must be a good webcam!"

Since I've had it, there have been no issues and I'm trying to find ways to use it more! I just started taking pictures with it ... WOW!

Great product!