Zoomcam III Motion Video Camera (USB)

Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for.
Review: I bought this after reading the one and only review on this product. Like the reviewer, I also was looking for two aspects.
1. the ability to perform in low light. 2. close up capability.
One the first requirement it failed miserably. Really it is joke.
I have seen better image out of cameras that have been operated in the dark with only the light from the monitor. I could shine a
75 watt bulb a foot from my face and still the camera could not pick it up properly.

As far as the close up requirement, I would say that it can perform at about 3 inches away from the object. With lots of light. Really lots and lots. Not very happy with the purchase.
Oh, another thing, the set up was not very smooth. Ater doing everything the way they have written up, I could not get the camera to work. I actally was thinking of returning it. Then Viola!! then next day, I noticed a green light shining on the camera and was able to get a picture.

Rating:
Summary: Good webcam for the money
Review: I've wanted a webcam to play around with for a while but didn't feel like paying the typical price for one. After reading up on the Zoomcam III, I decided to give it a try since it's inexpensive but still has the two features I'm most interested in: low-light capability (i.e. normal room lighting) and close focus (some other webcams can't focus closer than 3 *feet* - this one goes under 1.5 inches).

Installation was simple and worked fine on my Windows 98 SE machine. With a little adjusting of the settings, it does very well in daytime lighting (including indoors) and also does a good job with nighttime lighting, even from a single bulb (though that's a bit grainy). By turning the lens knob, the focus can be made sharp for very close or for across the room.

One pixel isn't working in the upper-right corner on the one I received, but that's minor to me. At 320x240, it has a very smooth framerate; the 640x480 mode is better for snapshots, since the framerate gets sluggish. It works fine with Booru webcam software. The swivel mount is a little loose, but with a few tries you can get it positioned correctly and then it stays put.

Overall, I'm quite happy with what it can do for much less than many other webcams cost.

Rating:
Summary: ok value for the price
Review: The image quality of this camera is ok, and it does support close up focusing. Software/hardware installation was no problem. It needs decent incandescent light or sunlight. I have been unable to get more than about 11 frames per second in low resolution. I think this might be due my computer having only USB 1.0. The camera says it supports USB 1.1, but I don't know if that'd make a big difference. The bundled software is very clunky and the documentation/help is scanty.