Web cam Advice

[Tosh McCaber]

Want to purchase a web cam to keep in touch with the family in Cornwall.

1. Any advice on which ones are good, bad or in between?

2. I notice that some web cams have a microphone built in. Can I then use the computer speakers, or do I have to still have a set of earphones?

[bladewashout]

To be honest, virtually anything XP compatible will be fine.

I prefer an add-on microphone because it means you can place it where you want it, and the camera/microphone best locations may not be the same.

You may have to mess about with the settings in the audio to get sound as you want it, but for skype, it shouldn't be hard to figure out. The computer's standard speakers will be fine. Skype's test programs will show you whether it works properly, or needs adjusting.

With donkeys years of experience behind me, I plumped for a Philips SPC 200NC Webcam at about £30 and a TRUST MC-1300 Microphone (about a tenner) for our own computers recently. I could have gone for the latest techno-geeky camera, but there's just no point spending any more.

If you're doing it on anything other than XP, good luck! Webcam on XP is easy, Windows 98/XP isn't. Remember to check the instructions and if it says to put the disc in the computer before attaching the camera, do it that way round or you will regret it!

BW

[Keef]

I have several cheap webcams in the drawer. They all "work", but either the video quality is dire, or they suddenly decide they don't like the colour of the light and shut down.

Avoid the bottom end of the market!

Use a separate microphone.

[oldbeefer]

I use a Logitech Pro with Sightspeed - brilliant quality. Daughter has a quickcam (Logitech, but cheap end of the market) that doesn't really cut the mustard. I use earpiece and micro - using the built in micro and computer speaker leads to a lot of echo which is very off-putting.

[Whitehatter]

I'll probably get shot to bits for this, but here goes...

best webcam I have ever used, wasn't a webcam at all. It was an Olympus point-and-click one megapixel camera I bought ages ago, that happens to also do webcam stuff. I bought a small tripod for it (one of those eight inch jobbies) for a couple of quid out of Tesco and stuck it on that.

Using the built in mic on a webcam isn't exactly brilliant so using it with a separate headset or mic and speakers is better. So if you can pick up a small camera with webcam facility, then it can be a lot more effective in these broadband days as the image sensor is going to be so much greater in quality than a cheap and usually nasty standalone webcam

:}

[Skanky Yoda]

If you are going to hcat into a microphone and use PC speakers then you may want to buy some headsets as the sound will echo echo echo....