IBM PC Camera -- good for videoconferencing and not much more.
Written: Dec 30 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use and set up, USB connection, software CD has a lot of stuff
Cons: Only functions well as a videoconferencing device
The Bottom Line: While the software bundle is good, the IBM PC Camera costs as much as cameras which offer a lot more features. It's just not worth $50.
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| kurt_g's Full Review: IBM PC Camera Webcam |
For Christmas of 2000, my mother gave me the IBM PC Camera. My stepfather, who is a techie like myself, had recommended it. It wasn't totally an altruistic gift. It was intended so that we could use videoconferencing so that she would be able to view a small, grainy picture of her newly born (at that time -- he was a week old then) grandson.
The IBM PC Camera is IBM's entry into the webcam market. Basically, you sit this thing on your monitor and use it to do webcam-like things. It came with a whole variety of software (more on this later.) Mostly, I only use this for videoconferencing.
The PC Camera's first real limit is that it's strictly a USB camera. No batteries, no ability to do anything outside of the computer. You can't take it with you and take pictures. Comparatively, the Aiptek PenCam 2, which I've also written an epinion on, has battery power, can take pictures (grainy ones to be sure, but the quality is equal to that of the IBM PC Camera.) Both the PenCam 2 and the PC Camera can be used as digital camcorders, but the PC Camera's lack of battery power means that you'll pretty much be restricted to making movies that star your own head. (And trust me, fellow epinioneers -- you do NOT want movies that star my head.) The PenCam 2's portability is not present here.
The second real limit here is the manual focus. Granted, I don't expect too much in the way of high-quality autofocus. But they could have made it either fixed-focus (since it's only usable as a webcam) or put in some sort of software-based autofocus. (A few autofocus systems on cameras are based off of image contrast -- an image with more contrast is generally better focused.)
The third, and this is common with webcams, since they are after all the cheapest digital cameras out there, is the image quality. It's terrible. The available image sizes are 160x120, 176x144, and 320x240. Again, the PenCam 2 wins out here -- it can do 640x480.
The PC Camera offers a capture button on its top. This strikes me as 'put there because the engineers thought it would be cool' rather than 'put there because it might be useful'. No one's going to reach over and push the button when they can use the software to do it. There is also a small green light that comes on when the camera is initialized (usually when you run NetMeeting or the software that comes with the camera.) Nice, but not necessary, as I can tell if the PC Camera is running by whether or not my smiling mug appears on the screen.
What's good about this camera? Well, here are some good points to this camera.
- The basic program that comes with it works pretty well. In my epinion on the Aiptek PenCam 2, I said that the download manager was not labeled well. The PC Camera wins here -- everything is labeled very clearly and a large variety of functions are put right at the user's fingertips. Snapshot, Video-Mail, Capture, Save, Mirror, Settings, and Album are all listed right across the top. Great for the average user. Also, the opportunity to jump right to the applications that shipped with the camera is right there. Good software design.
- It is easy for a normal, garden-variety user to set this up. It has installed on Win98 and Win2000 without a problem. For most people, this will be a matter of plugging in the camera and running the CD it came with.
- The CD that it came with contains a copy of NetMeeting. Oh, sure, I know some people hate Microsoft products with a passion, but NetMeeting suits most videoconference needs without too much problem. It lets my mother see my son (when I haul him up so his head is next to mine so he's in the camera's field of view) just fine.
- It came with velcro tape so that you could stick it to your monitor, if so you chose. This is just good attention to detail. Also suggests that the fine folks at IBM (or Xircom, actually) knew specifically what this was being designed to do -- sit on a monitor and not move. There is also a plastic piece that you can snap onto the base that will hold it flat against the edge to accomplish the same goal. Nice touch.
- It's relatively small and doesn't look like a giant eyeball. This is probably just me, but I don't care for a big plastic eyeball looking back at me. (Then again, I mentioned this to someone who had an eyeball-cam, and after that she couldn't sleep with it set up on her monitor anymore. But even that's a happy ending -- she moved into a house and has a separate bedroom and computer room now, so the eyeball cam doesn't bother her anymore.)
The software on the CD ranges from useful to slightly less useful to 'what where they thinking'? The actual 'IBM PC Camera software' itself is well written and useful, as said before. NetMeeting is great. They also include a program called 'ArcSoft Photo Printer LE', which I never loaded as I already have MGI Photosuite and Fireworks 3 -- between those two programs, my graphics needs are dealt with nicely. It's not like you'll really want to print the blurry pictures this thing takes anyway.
A program called 'SpotLife Internet Video Community' offers the ability to do live WebCasts, serve as a webcam, or publish web albums. I haven't used it, as I doubt people are interested in seeing the back of my chair live on the web. But it would be useful to someone, I'm sure.
Finally, we have a program called Reality Fusion GameCam SE. This apparently is designed to put your picture into Web-based games. I tried to use this one on a whim. It proved to be so frustrating and impossible to use I quit and uninstalled it. It would've been nice to put my head on a kangaroo's body, I guess, but now I'll never know. I'm not sure what they had in mind here.
I've seen other epinions on this camera that state that it costs approximately $50. If that's the case, then I don't recommend it. My reasoning is this: for $50, you can get the Aiptek PenCam 2, which at least you can pick up and take with you -- it'll serve just as well for webcam and videoconferencing use as the PC Camera. The software bundle just doesn't make up for it.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
kurt_g
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Location: Brick, NJ
Reviews written: 116
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