Here is a little and hopefully useful webcam buyer’s guide. It is hard to find a good webcam. Surprisingly, in webcams, the price, brand, and quality are not always related.
What makes a good webcam?
1. Good picture in bad lighting conditions.
Most people use video chat in the evening or at night in a room lit with regular tungsten lamps. To make things worse, the chatters are usually backlit. Most webcams have difficulty producing a good picture in such conditions. The result is a dark face.
2. Good frame rate.
As light conditions become difficult, most webcams drop their frame rate to sometimes 5-6 frames per second. A good webcam keeps its frame rate at ~30 FPS.
3. Wide field of view.
A good webcam has a wide field of view. This means that you don’t have to worry if you are in the picture frame. The best webcam makes you forget that it is there.
I have worked with many webcams while developing CamTrack and I would like to share my experience with you through the following summary:
Logitech QuickCam Fusion
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/IL/EN,CRID=2204,CONTENTID=10562
This is the best webcam I have tested so far. It has the best picture quality I have seen and has a wide field of view. This webcam also has a reasonable frame rate, copes well with bad light conditions, and carries a reasonable price.
In short, I highly recommend it.
Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000
I am not sure if Logitech still makes this webcam. However, if you have one, keep it.
This webcam produces the best picture quality I have seen in impossible low light conditions while keeping the frame rate high up at 30 fps. This webcam also has a convenient wide field of view.
Furthermore, this webcam model is the most famous webcam in the world; worthless cheap webcam manufacturers often clone it. So you must make sure a specific webcam is this particular Logitech webcam before you buy it.
Intel CS330 Camera
http://support.intel.com/support/createshare/camerapack/deluxe/sb/cs-020219.htm
I think this webcam is not manufactured any more; however, you can still find it in eBay.
A while ago, I borrowed a six-year-old Intel CS330 camera from my neighbor. The camera worked perfectly and had a reasonable picture quality in low light conditions and a good frame rate. The camera’s field of view was a little narrower than the Logitech webcams I mentioned previously, but was still reasonable.
In short, if you have an Intel CS330 camera, don’t be tempted to replace it for a slick looking, heavily promoted, new webcam. The odds are your Intel PC camera is better.
PLEOMAX Web Camera
http://www.samsungzirex.com/webcam.html
This webcam has good picture quality and works reasonably with low light conditions as long as you are not backlit. Its field of view is a little narrow. Still, in its price class, this webcam is the best webcam you can find.
In short, I recommend the PLEOMAX web camera.
Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/IL/EN,CRID=2204,CONTENTID=10556
This webcam is the new replacement of the famous QuickCam Pro 4000. Unfortunately, as is often the case with sequel movies, the second edition is not as good as the original.
The QuickCam Pro 5000 has reasonable picture quality and a wide field of view. However, this webcam is inferior to the Pro 4000 in picture quality, has a lower frame rate, and does not handle low light conditions as well as the Pro 4000.
In short: If you are going to buy a new Logitech webcam anyway, I recommend the Logitech QuickCam Fusion. It is cheaper and better in every way.
Creative Webcam Live! Pro
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=218&subcategory=219&product=10450
This webcam has a wide field of view and good image quality. However, to cope with low light conditions it drops the frame rate to ~5 frames per second, which is very inconvenient.
Verdict: The Creative Webcam Live! Pro is usually cheaper than the Logitech webcams recommended previously. Thus, the Creative webcam is worth considering for its picture quality.
The Dark Side of the Webcam
Are the manufacturers trying to confuse us? So many webcams, with similar model names, and the cameras all look the same, don’t they?
For example, consider the Logitech Orbit, a good quality 120 USD webcam:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=logitech+orbit&btnG=Search
Wait a second… Did you know there are two kinds of Logitech Orbit? One is Logitech Orbit and the other is Logitech Orbit MP. To the naked eye, they look and cost just about the same. However, they are not the same. On the contrary, the two webcams are quite different. The MP model includes the new Logitech Video Effects technology and much better face tracking. This model also includes a true 1.3MPixels sensor. Apparently, the regular Orbit doesn’t.
I once tried to buy a Logitech Orbit and the store owner tried to convince me to buy the old model. He simply did not know about the difference and argued with me that the Logitech Orbit was their latest model, which he just got in a special shipment. I almost bought that webcam. He also had a Logitech QuickCam Sphere on the shelf that looked the same; and he was not able to tell me the difference. I couldn’t either.
The same problem exists with other webcam models and other brands. Sometimes the difference in picture quality between two different webcams with similar names and appearance is just astonishing.
Nameless Webcams
If you insist on buying a cheap webcam, you are going to get a cheap webcam. Don’t expect miracles. The only exceptions I have come across are the Intel CS330 and the PLEOMAX web camera, which I recommended previously. Try to stay away from cheap webcams manufactured by the major brands. From my experience generic, or brandless, cheap webcams are usually better in quality than branded cheap webcams in the same price class.
More Information
You can find more webcam reviews at the wonderful website of Cowboy Frank. I don’t always agree with his opinions on particular webcams, but a visit to the website is worth your time.
I welcome your own opinions and experiences following this article.
Nir
