I'm a high school Drama teacher. In 2005 I'm going to start a PhD scholarship. I enjoy the CIAO id...
I'm a high school Drama teacher. In 2005 I'm going to start a PhD scholarship. I enjoy the CIAO idea and look forward to being more active as my life becomes a little more sane.
Member since:09.01.2001
Reviews:41
Members who trust:7
I got my Logitech Quickcam Express a few months ago and it has been a useful little device - sure it is limited in it's capabilities but it only cost 25 pounds!!
I have no real need for webcam but I thought it might be fun to hook one up. The device cost me about 30 pounds to begin with but then I got a manufacturers rebate that brought the price down to well below any competition.
Plugging it in couldn't have been simpler - the USB interface is virtually idiot proof (although I'm sure there are plenty of idiots willing to prove me wrong!! ;-> ). The only hassle I've had since is one of the software upgrades that came down was corrupt - bu Logitech quickly fixed it and an new download was available.
Other reviewers have commented on picture quality and sure sometimes it can look pretty gruesome - I've found that by carefully arranging the lighting sources around my desk I can improve the quality to an acceptable level. Just like any good photopgrapher, cinematographer or videographer I thought about light - then again after working in theatre for more than a decade it's something I naturally think about anyway. I set up a couple of desk lamps and and added a colour temperature correction filter and the image quality was instantly better - tweaking the camera settings allowed me to get it to a quality I was content with.
The software packaged with the camera allows a range of activities to be completed quite easily - you can broadcast live on the internet using the SPOTLIFE web site - you'll even get your own broadcast studio and upto 4 hours of live video broadcasting each month, you can set up an automatically refreshing webcam with still shots - refresh rates vary from 1 second to 60 hours, you can publish a web album with stills and video footage, send video email, video conference using NetMeeting, take snap shots and for a while there the software allowed the camera to act as a motion detector - it was the most interestign doorbell I've ever had until the software update stopped suporting this feature for some reason.
I like the small size of the camera and the way it sits on my monitor - although the mount is a little basic and sometimes has a mind of it's own - perhaps Logitech might look at redesigning that feature in the future.
Anyway - in terms of value for money - I think I got better than I paid for - looking at price comparisons there isn't much else in this price bracket but I'm sure that will change with time.
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Sounds like a pretty good little camera. If you fancy an on-line video session using paltalk let me know and we can discuss CIAO. I'd like to see the picture quality of this for myself. I am often asked by clients about Webcams and rely on opinions like yours to help me to offer the best advice. With your permission I would like to print out and show your opinion to clients. Sorry I can't pay you any commission though.
You can e-mail me at jon@ditt.co.uk or use the e-mail under my user profile on CIAO.
Thanks for a useful opinion.
Jon
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Postage & Packaging: £4.39 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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Jan 13th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
