Rating: 
Summary: Great Compression
Review: By far the best price /quality. I tried the Logitech Quickcam, and the quality did not even came close to the Philips Toucam Pro!. Compression software compresses the images (or video) with an exellent quality. and keeps the files very small. 5 stars*****
Rating: 
Summary: Value for money
Review: Good value for money. I plugged into my new XP machine, installed the required software and it works perfectly. Video mail option is not very effective. Inspite of several attempts, I get a very poor output. But the camera is really good and captures images at very low light. There are few add-on software that comes with the camera. Overall a good value for money, though one can expect a better results especially webcasting, and live streaming area.
Rating: 
Summary: Think VERY carefully before buying....
Review: I bought the ToUcam Pro and that was the mistake.Things went pear-shaped shortly after that and the Belkin self-powered USB hub, which had been powering my Canoscan N650U scanner and Alcatel Speed Touch USB ADSL modem happily for over a year with no problems went off completely as a result of installing the ToUcam Pro! This happened maybe a dozen times at various intervals ranging from 1 to about 6 or 7 minutes. Installation was annoying - I'm using Windows XP Pro and Philips claim the ToUcam Pro is XP-compatible. Maybe it is, but it most certainly is NOT out of the box; the cd will simply refuse to install as you'll be using the wrong version of Windows - the installer tells you this and you have to connect to the web to get an updater, which you install first! That's all well and good if you have Internet access of course, but there's NO warning of this until you actually start the install! Tut, tut Philips. Having installed the thing I was impressed by the clarity of the pictures. They're better than the Logitech Quickcam Pro 3000 - brighter, more vivid and sharper. The focus seems to be sharper on the ToUcam Pro, but the focus ring is sloppy and loose, giving the device a cheapish feel. The lens appears stronger too, with objects appearing closer than with the Logitech. The stand, whilst novel isn't practical, as unless you use the self-adhesive pad to fix it in one place the camera skids around. Philips seem to have gone for looks rather than practicalities. Blu-tak to the rescue! Various problems ensued with the USB and hanging applications, so I decided after 4 hours of sheer hassle and dying USB that enough was enough and removed the camera and rolled the system back to a restore point before the ToUcam was installed. Things seem fine now. Could a webcam driver cause me to lose a powered USB hub? Mmmm..... It's left me with more questions than answers, but if you're using a Canoscan N650U and an Alcatel Speed Touch USB ADSL modem, I would steer WELL clear of the Philips ToUcam Pro webcam.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Wrong With This Camera
Review: I had this camera up and running on my Windows ME machine within about five minutes and it works great! The picture is very sharp. This was the fourth USB device that I hooked into my USB hub and I have had no problems or error messages. The camera perches nicely on the top of my flat LCD monitor, although if you're going to have it on a wider surface I can see where the back support of the camera does tend to lift up off of that surface (unless you taped it down). Power is provided to the camera via the USB cable (my USB hub is plugged into the wall, and that might be a requirement) and the picture and sound are fed back to the computer using the same cable. The software recognized my previously installed microphone (attached to my SB Live! card) and allows me to switch between the two to capture the sound. I can only record 60 frames per second (fps) at the default output size (320 X 240) if nothing moves in front of the camera and without sound. Add movement and sound with the picture and you'll get substantially less than 60 fps and also dropped frames. With the clear picture and sound being transmitted from the camera I'm sure that it takes a lot of a computer's resources to record it all. I'm running mine on a Pentium III 933 MHz chip with 512 MB worth of RAM and it's doing an adequate job of keeping up with the data coming from the camera. The frames per second and the resolution can be adjusted downward as required. I think that the problems people report with this device involve having it hooked up to a machine that's too slow for the camera settings. The camera takes megapixel snapshots (by saying "CHEESE") through any TWAIN compliant software (Ulead Photo Express 2.0 SE software included with device) and will record them in whatever format the program can record. The camera records video in the AVI format only and you'll need to use the Windows player to view your recorded AVI file and your own editing software (it does come with VideoLinK Mail which records low quality video suitable to use as e-mail attachments). Sound is recorded in the PCM format. It also has SpotLife software bundled with the camera that allows you to instantly start transmitting streaming video into Cyberspace courtesy of a server provided free by SpotLife. All in all you can't beat this camera for ...(theprice).
Rating:
Summary: Great Performance, Great Price
Review: I have just installed my Philips ToUcam Pro and the picture quality is unbelieveable! The picture is better than anything I have seen and was a much better value. The camera even gives a great picture in low light. If you are looking for a great web camera, you have to check this one out!
Rating: 
Summary: Continual blue-screen crashes; Philips would not help
Review: I installed this camera on a standard Windows 98 system (with no other USB devices). The first blue screen crash happened right after I installed the software. I rebooted to see if the camera would work anyway, and it seemed like it did; I was delighted with the picture quality and light sensitivity. However, I quickly discovered that whenever I used the camera (from any application) a blue screen crash would follow, immediately or shortly afterwards. For example, Windows Media Encoder would record OK, but as soon as I stopped recording I would get the blue screen crash. The supplied Philips software would sometimes seem to work, but then when I exited and started up Windows Media Player, blue screen crash. I called Philips (case #US2-594863), stayed up several nights until 2-3 AM, uninstalling, reinstalling, downloading the latest drivers, etc., all to no avail. Today Philips told me they "will not be able to fix" the problem, and suggested that I return the camera. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Quick and easy Mac set-up, great pix
Review: I just got this camera and was able to set it up with my Mac Powerbook G3 without any hassles. The Mac software it comes bundled with (Oculus) is easy-to-use and has many great options -- I was able to start publishing pictures to my web site in a matter of minutes. It's also worth noting that third-party developers have created Linux drivers for this hardware, something which factored into my purchase since I also plan on using this camera directly with my web server running Linux.
Rating:
Summary: Best webcam (almost) nobody's heard of
Review: I picked one of these up on an auction site after reading reviews (all touting this as "The best webcam out there"), and after owning it for a few months, I'm convinced you can't find a better hardware webcam anywhere. The resolution (640x480) is terrific, the clarity and focus top-notch, and low-light sensitivity is among the best. My previous favorite, Vista Imaging's "ViCam" was sold to 3COM (rebranded as the "HomeConnect"), then quitely dropped. The ViCam/HomeConnect may be a slightly better unit, but not being available I found the ToUCam and have been delighted. This is my fifth, perhaps sixth webcam, and I'll buy another one; there's really no comparison to the rest. The unit is attractive and compact, with minimal controls (one actually, a shutter button). The supplied USB (1.1 only) cable is slim and lengthy, and once the drivers are installed, it's plug & play. (One niceity: The ToUCam ships with a "cute" egg-shapped zippered carrying case that is tiny, but excellent for packing the unit with you). One nit: Due to its design, the camera (made to mount in its own "leg" stand) tilts downward at an awkward angle. This won't prove much of an issue if you use the default stand (they are detachable), however if you mount the camera on some other device (in my case, the "TrackerPod"), you'll find the ToUCam points down at roughly a 30 degree angle. So beware, and ensure any stand you plan to use it on allows you to tilt the camera back up, or you'll be webcaming your desktop. Now, I mentioned that this is a great *hardware* product, and that suggests the bundled software isn't the best, and that's true. The included package is robust -- webcam imaging software, video email, video-active games, and of course, the requisite drivers. While usable, they don't provide much more, and updates from Philips are spotty and confusing to acquire and install. If you have PC software already that you're happy with (e.g., webcam32, trackercam, etc) then by all means pick up the 740K ToUCam, you won't be disappointed. But don't rely solely on the software package provided by Philips. I only wish this product were more widely available in the US, but with avenues like Amazon.com and auction sites, finding one shouldn't be too painful, and your search will be worth it.
Rating:
Summary: This camera stinks
Review: It has a bad picture. I could get another that has a better picture and comes with a microphone. I got ahead of the set-up so it got messed up. Then I had to uninstal it and then instal it again. If you want a "nice" camera DON'T GET THIS ONE!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great in low light
Review: It's amazing to see the good quality live images this little egg produces. You can adjust brightness, gamma, and other camera setting manually but it gives best images if you set to full auto. Even in a very low light - just lights from the monitor - this webcam adjust images and give quite impressive live images. Software comes with the box has problem with snapshot. The problem goes away when I upgrated the driver from their website. I am not very crazy about the software except the games. The games software tracks your body's movement and let you play volleyballs, boxing ... Snapshot images are grainy but I shouldn't expect anything better from a webcam. The 720 and 740 look identical but they are quite different in performance.
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