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Creative Labs WebCam Pro eX

Creative Labs WebCam Pro eX

List Price: $89.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: my experience with this webcam
Review: (...)Here are my comments:
The Good:
1. The color is very vivid compared to the 3-year old Creative webcam I had before.
2. Can be cliped on the laptop. The clipping mechnisim is very simple, and it worked for my laptop (a Dell Inspiron).

The bad:
1. Since the base of the camera also serves as the clip, it's very very light (just two piece of plastic), so sometimes it has trouble staying put.
2. On Windows XP, I had trouble with the control application that comes with the webcam (the application that let you take snap shots, take the video, etc). Upon exit of the application, the program crashes. However, I didn't experience any problem with the driver, so the cam works fine with Yahoo and MSN messenger on XP. I don't know if this has anything to do with an earlier version of the Creative application (for my old webcam). I ended up uninstall the old program but haven't had the chance to re-install the new one yet. So I don't know if this problem will go away. I checked Creative's website, there is no software patch available. I didn't have this problem with Win 2000.
3. Had a minor problem when used on my Win2000 machine which has a 4 port D-Link USB hub. When attached to one of the port, it complained serveral times about not enough bus bandwidth. I switched to a different port and the problem seemed go away.
4. Performance under low light condition is somewhat below my expectation.

In general, this is a so-so camera. Not as good as advertised, but then what do you expect from 59 or 79 dollars?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It's not rated "compatible with XP"; I sent mine back today.
Review: A bad early sign was the series of "not compatible with Windows XP" messages at install? "Go ahead anyway" instructs Creative in in the package materials, the website and the PDF manual, and I think that's the problem.

When the cam worked, my keyboard wouldn't; and vice versa. There was no solution. Fixing IRQ problems isn't layman's work in XP.

So for four days of trying I'd start the reinstall again from the disk, in Safe mode because (1) the webcam wouldn't install any other way for me, and (2) the install file wouldn't load into my Temp file so it could be used again. With each reinstall taking 25 minutes, I put seven hours into trying and failing to get the webcam to work!

"The installation will finish in a while" is the wording of the window that locked onto my screen when the installation failed; how long "a while" takes was never explained.

Picture quality was murky and this may have been correctable, but the cam never worked long enough for me to discover its controls.

I've never returned a product to Amazon before. I've ordered a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 in its place.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What a great little camera
Review: At first, I was about to rip my hair out because I thought I had wasted my money on a POS. Then, I realize that all the static and fuzzyness, goes away with seconds with the full auto mode. In any light, front light, back light, dim light on top of bright light in any position, the image your trying to capture it automatically makes it look more clear then one could hope for. You can aslo select from a variety of compression modes, which means if your sending a video to somebody on dial up, you can make the video file nice and small.

The best part about this camera is the 1024x768 shots, they are clear and crisp, not proffesional looking as it is still just a web camera. But there are features to change framerate, quality, everything imaginable. The only problem I have with it is it didnt come with webcast software, but if you have yahoo messenger you can broadcast to as many people as you like. Also, the base on the camera can clip on to most monitors, and even on notebooks.

I am very glad I bought this camera and would recommend it over the competing logitech ones that run for 79.99 and 99.99. The logitech ones just dont give you the 1024x768 shots.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Creative Labs WebCam Pro eX
Review: I recently purchased a WebCam Pro eX. It's the first web cam I've ever used or owned. I don't know of any others since I haven't used them. Some observations:

Pro: Good picture quality in adequatly lit conditions. CCD sensor. People on the other side of the ocean have told me that this web cam gives has good picture quality, but needs proper lighting source. Good Color quality. User can adjust brightness, saturation and contrast levels in accordance to the time of day. Software provided is easy to use. Comes with a microphone. Has a wide choice of resolutions - up to 1024 x 768. Works extremely well with Windows 2000. I don't use Windows XP, nor do I have any desire to upgrade to it, due to hardware compatibility problems this operating system has, and problems in general. If people have problems with this webcam using XP, it isn't because Creative produces poor drivers or a bad product, it's just that XP (Home or Pro) isn't a very good operating system. It's a poor O/S overall and I've had nothing but problems using it.

Cons: No digital zoom. It's difficult to save compressed Windows Media Player files with low frames rates without encountering problems with video and voice synchronization. Perhaps someone can tell me how to correct this problem. Picture quality degrades under poorly lit conditions. Camera requires a secondary light source. Micorphone is so-so. I use another headset instead.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: There are better cameras out there for the money.
Review: I use my webcam for videoconferencing at work, and I have used the Webcam Pro eX for a few months. It's fairly flat, so it fits in a laptop case pretty well.

Other than that, though, the camera performs only moderately well. It produces very grainy images, and in low lighting it's just not very good at all. When you run a grainy image through a videoconferencing codec, the result is a very blotchy picture.

I recently upgraded to the logitech quickcam for notebooks pro, which is also available from Amazon. The camera performs phenomenally well under low light conditions, even better under ideal lighting, and it is about 1/3 the size of this camera from Creative Labs.

The only downside to the logitech notebook cam is that the cable is designed for notebooks. It is only about 3 feet long.

I should add that, yes, you can reduce grain with the full-auto mode on the webcam pro eX, but it definitely lowers the frame rate and results in a very Max Headroom-esque type of image stutter.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: There are better cameras out there for the money.
Review: I use my webcam for videoconferencing at work, and I have used the Webcam Pro eX for a few months. It's fairly flat, so it fits in a laptop case pretty well.

Other than that, though, the camera performs only moderately well. It produces very grainy images, and in low lighting it's just not very good at all. When you run a grainy image through a videoconferencing codec, the result is a very blotchy picture.

I recently upgraded to the logitech quickcam for notebooks pro, which is also available from Amazon. The camera performs phenomenally well under low light conditions, even better under ideal lighting, and it is about 1/3 the size of this camera from Creative Labs.

The only downside to the logitech notebook cam is that the cable is designed for notebooks. It is only about 3 feet long.

I should add that, yes, you can reduce grain with the full-auto mode on the webcam pro eX, but it definitely lowers the frame rate and results in a very Max Headroom-esque type of image stutter.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: AipTek is more value for money
Review: I use the Aiptek HyperVcam Mobile and Creative EX Pro. The price is about 30% difference with Aiptek the cheaper one.

Creative is better at still pictures. However, the software that comes with it will show you a different picture during preview from the one it actually captures. e.g. The preview is darker but the actual saved picture looks okay.

Aiptek captures a poorer still picture but it is WYSIWYG and it has auto-focus.

The video for these 2 cameras looks the same to me. But for the difference in price, I rate Aiptek as value for money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Double The Price and Worth It
Review: My company has purchased five Creative Webcam Pro webcams, which we sent to out-of-state candidates for engineering positions. We then do a videoconference for the first interview. We also purchased a Creative Pro eX webcam to use at our office for the interviewers.

We were delighted by the value of the Webcam Pro; but the Pro eX with a CCD sensor, the charge-coupled-device that senses the image, is far superior. The Pro model has a much less sensitive CMOS sensor. The Pro eX has much better color rendition; colors are more saturated. Skin tones are much improved. Low light performance on the Pro eX is also far better with an excellent image under normal office lighting whereas the CMOS-powered Pro had images that were quite dark unless special lighting or daylight was available.

Although the number of pixels is the same for the two cameras, the detail seemed better with the Pro eX. A printed page from a book held up to the Pro eX was easy to read, while with the Pro the characters on the printed page were blotchy while still readable.

Both packages included a microphone. The Pro eX microphone was on a headset with earpiece. The Pro microphone had a clip for mounting to a monitor and no earpiece, so your system must have a working speaker. Software was complete with both and had the same features although the Pro eX was a later version.

Inexpensive video conferencing for work or family pleasure has been possible for three or four years. We were surprised that the installation took only ten minutes and that everything worked the first time. With the camera working, we took another twenty minutes to set up Microsoft Net Meeting for the first time. Net Meeting is the videoconferencing software that is included with XP and Windows 2000 and works with Window 98 as well. (Downloading is free.) In the latest XP version, Net Meeting seems to be rolled into Microsoft Messenger.

The only problem for many will be finding someone else on the Internet ready to test an installation. No problem of course if you bought two and give one to a neighbor (perhaps one of the webcams for the gift). Various Internet chat directories show online parties with a video capability; but you may end up looking at unexpected anatomical details if an unknown person accepts an invitation to launch a videoconference.

If you have a DSL or cable modem Internet connection, you will wonder why you did not try this earlier. It is easy to leave a connection open to chat (sound not typing) with full video while you go about your work. Just don't forget that the camera is on.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Grainy, XP "loses" it
Review: This is my first webcam and I was impressed with its picture quality, it was absolutely superb, thanks to its CCD sensor; which I heard that it is better than those that have the CMOS sensor in older webcam models. Anyway I have Windows XP and I'm not having any problems with it. Work well on my Yahoo! Messenger and MSN/Windows Messenger. This definitely worth my money. It's GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: This is my first webcam and I was impressed with its picture quality, it was absolutely superb, thanks to its CCD sensor; which I heard that it is better than those that have the CMOS sensor in older webcam models. Anyway I have Windows XP and I'm not having any problems with it. Work well on my Yahoo! Messenger and MSN/Windows Messenger. This definitely worth my money. It's GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!


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