I had a further chance to test out the Microsoft Lifecam Studio HD webcam in a setting outside of the office and into a bedroom lit environment. The first of my problems was with Wirecast, I was going to use the switching ability of Wirecast to swap between both webcam’s and microphones on the fly to give a balanced view of the webcam. Wirecast failed to show this webcam, they suspected I have too many USB webcams plugged in but I tired on a fresh system with only this webcam and still nothing – so I gave up on that idea. At least I now know that if you were thinking of buying it and use Wirecast – then you will be out of luck.

I used the software that came with each camera to record a short clip, the purpose here show the quality of each webcam and how the in-built microphone would sound. The goal of course is to aid the people who might have seen this webcam on offer in a store, been lured by the word HD and parting cash with it. read on after the break on how it looks and how I found it.

How did it look?

As you can see from the video I made, there is a difference – while the Microsoft webcam made the whole room very bight indeed, I felt it was too bright and while the Logitech was darker, it had more definition.

Some points to think about

I already mentioned the Microsoft one does not work in wirecast, this to me is a big problem. Next up is the CPU useage of the Lifecam, why it needs to eat the CPU when trying to operate at 720p make me wonder, the Logitech does not do this. The microphone as expected on both models seem be both “roomy” in that it sounds like your in a tunnel and background noise is an issue. The last point is that the body of the webcam after using it for one hour got very hot indeed, not sure if this had to do with the Monitor heating it up or it was working in overdrive.

I personally never had much joy with any single webcam made by Microsoft and this model (the top end if you like) does not change anything but as you have the video evidence in a couple different environments to look at and compare against, you can make your own mind up.

In the world of Webcam, if you want the best picture with the best light pickup, then you can do no better at this moment then the mighty Logitech 9000 Pro Webcam. If all you do is occasional video chat via Skype or whatever, then the cheap webcam’s will suit your needs (and save you a lot of money) but for anything else, maybe this webcam is the choice for now. Read on to find out my testing.

Testing Webcams

Anybody who knows me or regular readers will now that I have been buying (and returning) various Webcams in the hope that I might pick up a cheap model that offers both good quality and good picture from low light (well the camera thinks its low light) for some time now. The end result of all of this is you end of with a whole bunch of sub-standard webcams that are basically not fit for purpose. While the numbers on the box read well, such as 2MP and the such – the end result as shown in my various random Youtube Video’s is the quality and/or the frame rate sucks badly. The only Webcam which came close was the Creative Optiva Pro, the street price is still £50 but I picked it up for £24, so good bargain there.

Low light

I am not sure why a webcam needs almost studio lighting to get a good picture, stick some decent lighting in a room or go to a well lit office and the quality of most webcams shoot up by a big factor but my room is not lit in that manner. I have one large enough Windows which is covered by first Blinds, the reason for this is I do not want people to see inside of course. This diffuses the daylight and even during the day gives a soft light, I can see very well indeed of course. At Night, we only have the one light which for some reason is offset near the Window – maybe the house designers felt this was needed? Short of fitting a 100Watt Built or buying Studio lighting, the room by webcam standards is dark, so dark in fact that any software built into compensate either makes the Frames per Second (FPS) very low – like 5FPS or in the case of Microsoft webcams, Grainy as hell.

What I cannot understand though is my CamCorder copes with this so call “Low Light” which ease and that as you can read was the cheapest HD Model going. You need to remember this when buying a webcam or testing one out, if its not brighter then the sun in that room, the quality is going to suffer.

The Cost of this webcam

If you head to the normal high street stores, you will see that this webcam commands a £69 price tag and that alone is a bit of a “WoW – How much?” – to me at least anyhow. Searching online in my case Amazon seen this webcam go for either £48.25 plus £2.95 Postage from a company you never heard of or picking Amazon and it goes for £52. If you add the next day delivery, this normally brings it up to £60 and you start to wonder if it is easier just to pay the extra £10 and get it from the local store. I noticed a special deal for Free next day if you join this thing at Amazon which is free for one month, which I did (called Prime) and got it for the £52 – so a saving of £18, the price of the last webcam I just had then

Amazon Prime

I just read what this Amazon Prime is, it costs £47 per year and gets you Free Delivery, great if you shop a lot on Amazon. I switched off Auto Upgrade so that my Trail will expire in one months time, good job I checked or this cheap webcam would not have been so cheap after all.

Initial impressions

How would this camera cope with not only Windows 7 RC1 but the fact it is 64Bit? The CD that it came with failed to work, I could have run this in Vista 64Bit mode and it may have installed but I went to Logitech and grabbed the latest Vista 64Bit version, which installed and worked just fine. The light was in the morning (it arrived 7:30am) and my very much initial testing produced some good results indeed. The clip managed to hang no problem on my LG L203WT which most don’t due to the design and no fiddly focus ring to deal with.

Video Effects

I know that most people will not use these and indeed they are a gimmick, I liked the way they actually kept up unlike the one’s in ManyCam and the like. I am not sure if you can make your own but this seems possible, I just need to locate the software. Effects are split into Face Effects which overlays a cartoon face which moves in time with your face, Face Overlays – which put something on top of your face (Glasses etc) and finally Video effects such as Black & White etc. 

Thoughts and Conclusion

There is a wide range of Webcams out there, ranging from £5 all the way up to £100+ – The resolutions start off at 300k CMOS which means in effect 320×240, probably USB1 and the worst lens ever made – I cannot image the quality of these but hey, if you want some very basic video for the cheapest price ever, I am sure these will just about suit you but do not be surprised when it runs at 5FPS and has the grainiest picture known to man. 

What is hard to see in the store is that every single webcam boasts how many MegaPixel it can do, how well it works in low light and the picture they present on the box is amazing. I have had (and still own one) Microsoft Webcam’s – I can only suggest to steer well clear of these no matter how much of a bargain – the picture is grainy as hell. My Other saying is – you get what you pay for UNLESS you are comparing prices in the high street stores, I would not pay £79 for the Microsoft VX-6000 for example, nor the £49 and so forth, this is closer to a budget webcam.

I am impressed by the Logitech 9000 Pro, the quality of the webcam feels like it is worth the money, the clamp is very good design, its large compared to most webcam’s and the picture is as expected the best out there. I have not done an un-boxing or a video review as there is already way too many out there, so pointless.