List of today's top webcams, from best to worst.
Sep 12 '01 (Updated Sep 18 '01)
The Bottom Line Use this reference list as a quick and dirty guide to the best and worst webcams on the market. Philips ToUcam Pro is highly recommended.
I recently had an opportunity to test a wide variety of some of today's most popular webcams for the company I work for. I am sharing the results here with you. I will update this review as more webcams have been reviewed.
These webcams are ranked using image quality first, and framerate second. You will notice a pattern that the more expensive cameras are generally towards the top, but don't use price as your decision maker, we have seen some awful webcams selling for over $100.
Philips ToUcam - By far the best, only $70 but hard to find, try staples
Intel PC Pro - The old champ, surpassed only by the Philips.
Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000
3Com HomeConnect - Another old champ, still a very good camera, but it's getting outdated
Creative WebCam Go ES - Good image quality as a webcam, makes a lousy digital camera though.
Philips Vesta Pro Scan - Good image quality (if you don't mind messing with the settings quite a bit), but the ToUcam Pro is cheaper and better.
Kodak DVC-325
Kodak DVC-323 - Both Kodaks are good cameras, but they suffer from lower than optimal framerates
Logitech QuickCam Web
Intel Pocket PC Camera - Makes a pretty good digital camera, but the quality of webcam images are sub-par. If you want a webcam get something better, if you want a digital camera, buy a digital camera.
D-Link DSC-320 - D-Link doesn't actually make these cameras, and they're not very good. If you're just looking for something to play with, and you can find it really cheap, you might want to consider this camera.
Intel Deluxe - Despite the name, this is not a very good camera, stick with the pro.
Avoid these webcams at all costs:
Logitech QuickCam Express - There is a lot of variance between these cameras. We tried 3 of them and 1 gave "ok" results, the others were awful.
Intel Easy PC Camera - Lousy quality, and ugly to boot. Granted, it's a cheap camera, but it's not worth the plastic casing they put it in.
PenCam (all) - These cameras are an interesting concept, but the technology isn't there yet. The image quality is sub-par, and the Trio could not even stand up when the cord was attached, despite its very heavy base.
Kensington (ALL) - they are dropping support for these cameras, which currently have very buggy drivers and low quality images to boot, and the drivers will never be fixed.
Irez Kritter USB - Poor driver support, poor image quality, and an inability to stand on it's own, funny shaped feet push this camera towards the bottom.
IBM (all) - Even the most expensive of these cameras have relatively low image quality, and their drivers make popular video conferencing software (such as netmeeting) crash, they ship without support for video for windows, which is a commonly used programming interface for webcam programs.
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jayp39
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Location: Lansing, MI
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